

Class. 

Book (S2^\j63 
fopyright W. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 






ST. LOUIS: 
ITS HISTORY AND IDEALS 



ST. LOUIS: 

ITS HISTORY AND IDEALS 



PREPARED FOR THE 

SIXTY-FIRST ANNUAL SESSION 

OF THE 

AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION 

June Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth, 1910 



BY 

PHILIP SKRAINKA. M. D. 

'I 




ST. LOUIS, 1910 






N> 



Copyright, 1910, by Philip Skrainkt 
All rights reserved 



Lambert-Deacon-Hull Printing Co., St. Louis 



(gCI.A265628 






>4- 



'^- 



In pre^Daring the following history of St. 
Louis, assistance has been lent the author by so 
many persons that it would be impossible, on ac- 
count of limitation of space, to mention each one 
separately. But though his expression of thanks 
must take this form, he nevertheless feels it his 
duty to single out four names and a business 
house for special reference — namely. Miss May 
Simonds, Eeference Librarian of the Mercantile 
Librar}', for assistance in looking up material in 
works of reference; Mr. William Trelease, Di- 
rector of the Missouri Botanical Garden, for ad- 
vice in regard to horticultural and botanical 
matters; Mr. Francis E. A. Curley, of the Art 
Museum, for material pertaining to art; Eev. 
John C. Burke, S. J., of the St. Louis University, 
for researches among many half-forgotten records ; 
and the St. Louis News Company, for the loan of 
all the photographs, with the exception of perhaps 
half a dozen, from which reproductions were made. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER T. 

Page 
Eat^ly Htstotjy 1 



CHAPTER II. 

The Streets and Their Buildings 21 

CHAPTER III. 
The Parks and Public Gardens G9 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Art Museum and the Art Schools 90 

CHAPTER V. 

Medical Schools, Hospitals and Charitable 
Institutions 105 

CHAPTER VI. 

Universities^ Schools and Libraries 117 

CHAPTER VII. 
Ideals 1^7 



INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS 



Page 

Statue of Pierre Laclede Liguest 2 

St. Louis in 1780. From the Original Map made by Auguste 

Chouteau and now on File at U. S. Recorder's Office 8 

Laclede's Home, Afterwards the Old Chouteau Mansion 10 

Mississippi River Steamer 13 

St. Louis in 1856-65. View from Lucas Place 14 

View from Water Tower 15 

St. Louis in 1866. Looking West from Locust Street. Henry 

Shaw's Home in the Foreground 17 

St. Louis River Scene 18 

Bads Bridge and Levee 19 

Old Cathedral 23 

Merchants' Exchange 24 

Fourth Street, North of Pine Street 26 

Court House 27 

Fourth Street from Market Street 29 

Broadway and Market Street, Looking North and East 30 

Olive Street, West of Fourth Street 31 

Missouri Athletic Club 32 

Sixth Street and Washington Avenue, Looking West 33 

Seventh Street, North of Pine Street 34 

Mercantile Club 35 

Eleventh and Olive Streets, Looking East 36 

Chemical Building 37 

Custom House and Post Office 37 

Christ Church Cathedral 38 

City Hall 40 

New Municipal Courts 41 

Four Courts 42 

Union Station 43 

Coliseum 45 

University Club 46 

St. Louis Woman's Club 47 

Vandeventer Place 48 

The Odeon 49 

St. Alphonsus (Rock) Church 49 

St. Francis Xavier's (College) Church 50 

Interior of St. Francis Xavier's (College) Church 51 

Lindell Boulevard, Looking West from Grand Avenue 52 

St. Louis Club 53 

St. Peter's Episcopal Church 53 

Columbian Club 55 

New Catholic Cathedral 56 

Portland Place 57 

Racquet Club 58 



INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS-Continued 

Page 

First Church of Christ, Scientist 58 

Tuscan Temple 59 

St. John's M. E. Church, South 59 

Temple Israel GO 

Second Baptist Church 60 

King-sbury Place 61 

Washington Tei'race 62 

Hortense Place 63 

Wednesday Club 63 

Compton Place 64 

Flora Boulevard 65 

Liederkranz Club. 66 

St. Francis De Sales' Church 67 

Soulard Market 68 

A Wood— Forest Park 70 

Mountain Lion — Forest Park 71 

Bridge — Forest Park 71 

Bird Cag-e — Forest Park 71 

Bird Cage— Forest Park 72 

General Franz Sigel — Forest Park 72 

Fountain— Hyde Park 73 

Schiller Monument — St. Louis Place 73 

Lake — Fairground 74 

Basins — Compton Hill Reservoir Park 76 

Washington Statue — Lafayette Park 77 

East or Main Entrance — Tower Grove Park 78 

South Entrance — Tower Grove Park 78 

Drive — Tower Grove Park 79 

Lily Pond — Tower Grove Park 79 

Water Lilies — Tower Grove Park, 80 

Amazon Lilies — Tower Grove Park 80 

Humboldt Statue— Tower Grove Park 81 

Main Entrance — Missouri Botanical Garden 81 

Gate-Cottage — Missouri Botanical Garden 83 

Hedges — Missouri Botanical Garden 84 

Cactus House — Missouri Botanical Garden 85 

Orchid House — Missouri Botanical Garden 85 

Museum Building — Missouri Botanical Garden 86 

Henry Shaw's Town House — Missouri Botanical Garden 86 

The Villa— Delmar Garden 88 

Suburban Garden 88 

Tokio Gateway — Forest Park Highlands 89 

Museum of Fine Arts 91 

Art Museum, — Forest Park 92 

Main Entrance, Art Museum — Forest Park 93 

School of Fine Arts 100 

University City 101 

Academy of Fine Arts — University City 102 

Artists' Guild 103 

Medical Department of St. Louis University — 1841 108 

Washington University Medical School 110 

Medical Department — St. T^ouis University (Marion Sims-Bcau- 

mont College of Medicine) 112 



INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS— Continued 

Page 

Barnes Medical College 113 

St. Luke's Hospital 114 

Jewish Hospital 116 

St. Ann's Maternity Hospital and Foundling Asylum 117 

Missouri Baptist Sanitarium 118 

Evangelical Deaconess Hospital 119 

Mullanphy Hospital 120 

Bai-nard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital 121 

Second Floor Plan— Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital... 122 
Fourth Floor Plan— Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital.. 123 

Maternity Hospital 124 

St. John's Hospital 125 

Frisco Hospital 126 

St. Vincent's Institution for the Insane 127 

St. Louis Children's Hospital 128 

Lutheran Hospital 129 

Alexian Brothers' Hospital 130 

Mt. St. Rose's Hospital 131 

St. Anthony's Hospital 131 

Administration Building — City Hospital 132 

City Hospital 133 

Missouri Pacific Hospital 135 

Josephine Hospital 136 

Bethesda Foundling Home and Incurable Hospital 137 

City Sanitarium (St. Louis Insane Asylum) 138 

House of the Good Shepherd 140 

Home of the Friendless 141 

Altenheim 142 

Memorial Home 143 

Missouri School for the Blind 143 

Methodist Orphans' Home 144 

Jewish Educational Alliance 145 

Old St. Louis University—Ninth Street and Washington Avenue 148 

St. Louis University— Grand Avenue Side 149 

St. Louis University — ^West Pine Boulevard Side 150 

Cupples Hall No. 1— Washington University 151 

Busch Hall— Washington University 152 

Eads Hall— Washington University 153 

Cupples Hall No. 2 — ^Washington University 154 

Ridgley Library — Washington University 154 

David R. Francis Gymnasium — Washington University 155 

Manual Training School 156 

Central High School 157 

Soldan High School 157 

Convent of the Visitation 158 

David Ranken, Jr,, School of Mechanical Trades 159 

Mary Institute 160 

Central Public Library • 161 

Branch Public Libraries • 162 

Mercantile Library 163 

St. Louis Medical Library— Medical Society 164 



ST. LOUIS: ITS HISTORY AND IDEALS 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY HISTORY. 

Pierre Laclede Liguest — St. Louis as a Trading Post — Span- 
ish Domination — Louis St. Ange de Bellerive — Pontiac 
and His Hatred of the English — • French Suavity and 
EJnglish Superciliousness — The Village of St. Louis and 
its Three Streets — Laclede's House — The Alcohol Ques- 
tion as Judged by the Spanish — Style of Dress of the 
French Colonists — The Question of Immigration — The 
Louisiana Purchase — Population in 1799 — Shadrach Bond 
— First Directory Published by John A. Paxton — Is St. 
Louis a Southern City? 

IT is a commonplace of criticism to say that all Ameri- 
can cities are alike. We hear this almost dail}^, and 
though outwardly there is the nsual grain of truth in 
the remark, on further thought we immediately recognize 
how fallacious is so superficial a judgment. St. Louis has 
characteristics which are decidedly unlike those of other 
cities ; and for an explanation of these we must hark back 
to those early times when it was a mere trading post, 
and had for its controlling powers those adventurous 
spirits who left the province of Louisiana to seek fortune 
somewhere on the west banks of the Mississippi Eiver, near 
the Missouri. Pierre Laclede Liguest Avas the founder 
of this obscure trading post, and though this statement 
might convey to the modern mind nothing of any im- 



% St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

portance, it nevertheless carries considerable weight, since 
it cannot be gainsaid that because of his education, his 
judgment of men and his high sense of honor no better 
selection could have been made by the province of Louis- 
iana in the matter of a representative citizen of France to 
deal with the savages. ^A^iat Laclede accomplished from 
the time of his arrival in 1763 must be attributed to force 

of character, for not only were 

I his dealings with the Missouri 

Indians of the amicable nature 

which indicates mental 

I superiority tinctured with 

^_ . kindness, but his sagacity stood 

■t him in good stead, since his 



t 



^ influence was instrumental in 

transferring the peltry trade 
from Cahokia and Kaskaskia 
to the trading post at St. 
Louis. Thus the beginnings 
of what to-day is a large and 
prosperous city were imbued 
with a commercial spirit that 
meant much for the future 
growth of the new settlement 
west of the Mississippi. 

Despite the assertion that 
statue of commercialism was the in- 

Pierie Laclede Liguest , . n , ■ -, -t ,i i 

centive that induced the early 
growth of the colony, there were other reasons for its con- 
tinued jDrosperit}^, and these must be attributed to the 
location, which was contiguous to the Missouri, and the 
fact that tlie Indians had an aversion for the English 
directly that people got possession of the country east of 
the Mississippi. English laws and their customs were not 
to their liking, and before long they sought to trade with 




Early History. 3 

the new trading post on the west side of the Mississippi, 
which was inhabited only by Frenchmen, and to all ap- 
pearances belonged to France. The Indians made much of 
the French, while, on the other hand, their feelings for the 
English bordered on abhorrence. 

After St. Louis became a center for the peltry trade its 
reputation as a safe colony was well established, and the 
English, on the east side of the Mississippi, not being any 
too popular with the new-comers in their villages, the tide 
of immigration was not long in setting in towards St. 
Louis. After so short a space as one year of its founding 
the new colony was in enjoyment of the amenities of life. 
And, when I write amenities, I am not using the word in 
any restricted sense, but in its broadest, since no statutes, 
no lawgivers, no prisons interfered with the even tenor of 
existence. Wlien any differences arose, appeal was made 
to the small number of leading citizens whose word carried 
weight. The unmodernness of this procedure must surely 
strike the citizens of today, with their unweariedness in 
dragging cases through all the lower and higher courts, as 
exceedingly primitive ! 

The citizens were, for the most part, natives of the 
province of Louisiana and Canada — good, solid stock; and 
if they had any wants, they were not at all excessive. 
Their sojourn in their respective provinces had taught 
them the excellent lesson of modesty, and though there 
may have been a few among them who were already bitten 
with that almost universal modern disease — the desire 
for wealth — the small number of sporadic manifestations 
of this mental upset did not affect the general complexion 
of the new settlement. Their content partook of the 
simple life, of which we hear so much nowadays. But 
simplicity of life, though admirable, is not so high a 
quality that it need arrest our attention here; and were 
there no other kind things to say about the early settlers, 



4 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

we would be tempted to dismiss them with scant praise. 
True, they had no mental cultivation, but what the}^ did 
have far outbalanced this defect. Their gaiety, their 
probit}^, their serene outlook on life prevented them from 
deteriorating into beings who were not equal to withstand 
the roughnesses incidental to a wilderness that meant 
nearly all the deprivations of the pleasant things of city 
life. In short, the frailties which are so intimately inter- 
woven in the fabric of modern existence were no part of 
their diversions, which certainly shows that their sturdi- 
ness grew, despite the unintermitted obstacles that so 
often are the undoing of even the staunchest. 

But the peacefulness of the lives of these early settlers 
received a rude jar when the intelligence was brought 
home to them that all the French possessions west of the 
Mississippi had passed under Spanish rule. Instead of 
joy reigning supreme in the cabins of the new colony, 
curses were launched against the French monarch who 
had secretly bargained with Spain. The inhabitants of 
New Orleans and St. Louis were as one when it came to a 
matter of resisting the Spanish laws; and so great was 
this feeling that Spain wisely deferred initiating the peo- 
ple into any changes until the times were more opportune. 
And thus after the first ebullition of anger passed away the 
old order again obtained. Pierre Laclede Liguest con- 
tinued to be recognized as the head of the colony, and 
though his prerogatives were many, there was no abuse 
of them on his part. He remained the merchant and 
trader, and the legislative authority he exercised was very 
moderate, indeed. The rights of the company under royal 
charter made it possible for him to acquire any amount 
of land he thought necessary for the growth and pros- 
perity of the village he had founded, and to apportion the 
same to new-comers who intended to take up their abode 
in or near the prosperous settlement. But though one 



Early History. 5 

would think that here was the golden opportunity by 
which wealth could be easily acquired, the records which 
are ours to study evidence the fact that his exalted charac- 
ter as a man of business — no matter what his moral fail- 
ings in other respects were — never failed of justness to his 
fellow-villagers. 

With the arrival of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive and 
forty soldiers, quite a stir was made in the peaceful vil- 
lage. Just why Aubri, the commandant-general at New 
Orleans, ordered Louis St. Ange de Bellerive to St. Louis 
has never been thoroughly explained, but the inference 
is that the hostile feeling of the inhabitants towards the 
Spanish had a decided bearing on this matter. But this 
is mere conjecture, and what we really know is that the 
presence of the forty soldiers proved a decided menace to 
peace and order. Civilians and the military seldom get 
on any too well under the best conditions, and in the 
flourishing village there were soon disputes, fighting, and 
all the evils which result from a constant upset. Added 
to this the soldiers soon taught the people the questionable 
delights of dissipation, and what with their somewhat in- 
dolent habits, they were not averse from learning many un- 
desirable lessons. The outcome was a decided set-back to 
the healthful progress of the settlement and a lowering of 
the moral tone. Things went on from bad to worse, and 
the necessity of a head to manage the affairs of the vil- 
lage became peremptory. And the choice fell on Louis 
St. Ange de Bellerive. 

This officer enjoyed an enviable degree of popularity, 
not only with the natives, but also with the Indians. The 
latter recognized in him the implacable enemy of the 
English, and, on account of this, were most enthusiastic in 
their praise of his virtues. But another, and perhaps 
better reason, was at the bottom of their adulation, and 
that was St. Ange de Bellerive's friendship for the great 



6 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

chief of the Ottawas — Pontiac. St. Ange used all his 
persuasive powers to further peace between Pontiac and 
the English, and when the Indian realized that his allies 
were forsaking him, and that to pursue his favorite policy 
of being the terror of English settlements was a sheer 
waste of time — since alone he could not accomplish his 
deadly deeds — he was not unwilling to abide by St. Ange's 
advice and bury the tomahawk. After so great a man as 
Pontiac embraced the arts of peace, the lesser men among 
the Indians promptly desisted from warfare — a procedure 
which meant much for the tiny settlement of St. Ijouis 
and much more for St. Ange's reputation. In fact, on so 
firm a basis was his fame established that by a unanimity 
of opinion, which speaks well for the intelligence of the 
inhabitants, he was selected as their commandant-general, 
with the sort of power in the matter of apportioning lands 
which was and is still done only by royal authority. That 
this honor, not to say prerogative, fell to him was most for- 
tunate for the inhabitants, since at this time a person was 
sorely needed who, by a will power that could not be 
deviated, would be instrumental in settling, in the fairest 
way, the disputes which arose regarding the priority of 
possession. 

When we recall that at this time all the country be- 
tween St. Louis and the Pacific Ocean was thickly settled 
by Indians, and that even the colony founded by Pierre 
Laclede Liguest was literally surrounded by them, it is 
with considerable surprise that we read of the amicable 
relations which existed between the white man and his red- 
skinned neighbor. We hear nowadays a deal about French 
suavity and how superior the French nation is in this re- 
spect to all others; but what must not have been the ad- 
vantages of the possession of this quality when the dealings 
with a race as belligerent as were the Indians really meant 
their thorough placating. The English would not have 



Early History. 7 

fared so well, and tliougU to-day they are about our best 
colonists, at the time of which we speak, they somehow 
failed to ingratiate themselves with the red man. An 
understanding of other men is not an every-day quality; in 
truth, it is among the rarest, but strange as it may sound, 
the early French colonist must have had it at his fingers' 
ends, since without it he would have made but small 
progress with a people who already were harboring none 
too friendly feelings against the white invader. But when 
the white man places the red man on the same footing 
with himself, much in the way of amity is accomplished, 
and this the Frenchman of those early days did, for he 
hunted with him, underwent his fatigues without demur, 
and did not make himself in the least objectionable by cry- 
ing out against a fate that deprived him of the luxuries 
of life. Moreover, there was that absence of supercilious- 
ness in his attitude toward his inferiors which is so rarely 
lacking in the Anglo-Saxon; and what with his Gallic 
lightness and his non-Puritanic interference with the moral 
status of others, he adapted himself more and more to the 
social conditions of the red man. In fact, his adaptability 
went so far that in quite a large number of instances he 
did not hesitate to marry the daughter of a chief, thus 
allying himself more closely with the tribe. Very shock- 
ing, indeed, is this to our carefully nurtured ideas of pro- 
priet}^, but how necessary to the success of him who would 
be a successful colonist ! 

The plan of the village of St. Louis was formed in 
the spring of 1764 by no other than Pierre Laclede Liguest, 
and though the dimensions must strike the present 
dweller of the town as intensely ludicrous, to the sup- 
posedly omniscient mind of Laclede they were vast enough 
to answer all purposes for many years to come. The street 
which to-day is known as Main Street, had for either 
boundary Plum and Morgan Streets. It gloried for some 



8 St, Louis : Its History and Ideals. 

years in the exalted name of La Rue Royale, and then 
fell from grace and was kno-wm as La Rue Principale. 
Second Street of to-day extended from Cedar to Morgan 
Streets, but though at that time it had almost as many dis- 
tinctions as La Rue Royale, it was treated as a step-child 
in the beginning, for it was spoken of slightingly as "une 
autre rue principale/^ But directly a church was planned 
to lend dignity to the street, it came into its own, so to 
speak, and was re-baptized as La Rue de TEglise, or 




St. Louis in 1780. From the Original Map Made by Auguste 
Chouteau and Now on File at U. S. Recorder's Office 



Church Street. What is to-day Third Street was between 
1766 and 1780, La Rue des Granges, or the Street of the 
Barns. With the mention of the latter we have reached 
the uttermost limit of the village, and a step beyond would 
surely get us into the vast area which was called La Grande 
Prairie. So magnificent were the proportions of the vil- 
lage from Laclede's point of view, that he did not hesitate 
to prophesy to M. de Neyon, the French commandant at 
Fort de Chartres, that "St. Louis would be the most beauti- 



Early History. 9 

ful city in America.'' This, by the way, is still a moot 
question. 

All the houses prior to 1766, with the exception of 
Laclede's, were built of logs or poles daubed with mud. 
They had few comforts, and attest to the fact that the vil- 
lagers were men of decidedly primitive tastes. When we 
take into consideration how excessive are our demands at 
present in the way of everything that is modern, or as 
our speech has it, "up to date," we cannot but think that 
perhaps hardihood has gone out of our lives and given 
place to an effeminacy that must be gratified in a thou- 
sand ways. Be that as it may, these huts were really far 
removed from what should constitute civilized man's abode, 
and if we dwell on this fact, it is merely to controvert 
what has so often been advanced but never proved — that 
these hardy settlers were of an aristocratic strain, when 
the truth is that for the most part they were good honest 
folk with extremely bourgeois blood flowing in their veins. 
But the honor which they deserve is not the less because 
of this. 

After the arrival of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive from 
Fort de Chartres, the village assumed an air of prosperity, 
which was not due to any strenuous efforts on the part of 
the inhabitants, but to the fact that a number of merchants 
were attracted to the place on account of the salutary laws 
instituted by Laclede. The houses which the new-comers 
built were quite commodious and certainly put the regula- 
tion hut to shame. But though the architectural ad- 
vances were significant of a better and more prosperous 
era for the village, none of the newer houses could com- 
pare in size with "Laclede's house." In the original plans 
for the village, Laclede laid out a public square which he 
called Place d'Armes, and which was bounded on the 
south, west and north by three narrow streets, to-day 
known ag Walnut, Main and Market Streets. West of this 



10 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



square was another of like proportions, and here in its 
isolated glory stood the piece de resistence, from an archi- 
tectural point of view, — "Laclede's house." Stone build- 
ings with or without high basements are plentiful enough 
to-day and do not, as a general thing, arrest our attention, 
but when St. Louis was in its swaddling clothes, "stone" 
was an unknown quantity in the material which ingenious 
builders utilized for building purposes. ISTo wonder, then, 
that "Laclede's house," a stone building with a high base- 
ment and a full galler}-, attracted attention, being, as it 
undoubtedly was, an alluring oasis in a desert of mud- 
daubed huts ! 

Although the 

inhabitants re- 
sisted, to the 
best of their 
ability, the 
pressure of 
Spanish rule, 
there was one 
beneficent point 
in it w h i c h, 
though perhaps 
unappreciated in 
those days, is not 
without interest to all those modern physicians who are 
interested in the alcohol question. As a counterblast to 
our lax liquor laws it would be well for us to con the 
stringent law the Spanish authorities promulgated. It 
reads as follows : "At each post there shall be but a certain 
number of tavern and dramshop keepers that we will ap- 
point, who shall be persons of good conduct and devoted to 
the government. These, under no pretext, can sell or give 
liquor to Indians or slaves. They will give immediate 
notice of the least disturbance at their houses which may 













Laclede's Home 
Afterwards the Old Chouteau Mansion 



Early History. 11 

lead to disorder, to the commandant or nearest syndic, that 
he may apply the most prompt remedy. All persons, other 
than those who shall he authorized to keep tavern, or dram- 
shop, who shall be found to have sold liquor, shall undergo 
for the first offense three days' imprisonment and two dol- 
lars fine ; for the second offense, five dollars fine and fifteen 
days' imprisonment; for the third relapse they shall he sent 
to New Orleans under safe conduct at their own cost and 

expense. 

"Every person, either keeper of tavern or dramshop, or 
any other who shall be found to have given or sold liquor 
to Indians, shall at once be arrested, put in irons and sent 
under escort of a detachment of militia at his cost and 
expense to New Orleans, and his effects shall be seized 
and sequestered until the decision of his lordship, the 
governor-general." 

Wliat strikes us upon reading the above is that the 
Spaniards may have had a prescience of what the liquor 
trade was going to amount to in the future, and not wish- 
ing to be held responsible for encouraging in any way a 
business whose success depends on the laxity of law, they 
immediately undertook means to exterminate it. Granting 
all our prejudices against Spanish misrule in the various 
colonies which Spain has held in the Western World, it 
must be admitted, in all fairness, that as regards the sale 
of liquor slie showed a rigor that cannot be too highly 
praised. No doubt the French of those early times con- 
sidered the law an infringement of their personal liberty, 
just as we of to-day are wont to cry out against anything 
that our intense Americanism construes into an obstacle to 
our overweening ambition. Truth to say, quite a dem- 
onstration, on the part of a majority of our citizens, would 
take place were one of our saloon-keepers sent to New 
Orleans or any other equally distant point for violating our 
present kindly liquor laws ! 



12 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

There is one important point in describing a new 
colony that should not escape a critic's pen. It has often 
occurred to the present writer that were an historian to tell 
us less about battles and more about the customs of a 
people, especially their habit of dress, a better idea would 
be conveyed to the student about certain matters which are 
of prime importance. The histories which contain ac- 
counts of St. Louis when a village, and some time after, 
when it had achieved greater distinctions, while not ex- 
actly silent on the matter of dress are not any too explicit, 
and were it not for Monette, in his "History of the Valley 
of the Mississippi," we would not be in a position to know 
how the early settlers garbed themselves. Shops were not 
too plentiful in those early times ; the conditions not being 
of so inviting a nature that the shopkeeper, ever alert to 
flaunt his wares in the public's eye, would be attracted by 
the usual lure. But despite this drawback the men and 
women contrived to dress quite decently, and by this is 
meant that they not only showed considerable ingenuity, 
but an enthusiastic regard for color and decoration that 
was not greatly dampened by the hardships and privations 
which must have been their daily lot. Monette's account 
runs as follows : "The principal garment in cold weather 
for men was, generally, a coarse blanket capote drawn 
over the shirt and long vest. The capote served the double 
purpose of cloak and hat, for the hood, attached to the 
collar behind, hung upon the back and shoulders as a cape, 
and, when desired, it served to cover the whole head from 
intense cold. Most commonly in summer, and especially 
among the boatmen, voyageurs and coureurs des bois, the 
head was enveloped in a blue handkerchief, turban-like, as 
a protection from solar heat and noxious insects. The 
same material, of lighter quality and fancy colors, wreathed 
with bright-colored ribbons and sometimes flowers, formed 
the fancy head-dress of the females on festive occasions; 



Early History. 



13 



at other times they also used the handkerchief in the more 
patriarchal style. The dress of the matrons was simple 
and plain; the old-fashioned short jacket and petticoat, 
varied to suit the diversities of taste, was the most com- 
mon over-dress of the women. The feet in winter were 
protected by Indian moccasins, or the more unwieldy clog- 
shoe; but in summer and in dry weather, the foot was left 
uncovered and free, except on festive occasions and holi- 
days, when it was adorned with the light moccasin, gor- 
geously ornamented with brilliants of porcupine quills, 
shells, beads or lace, ingeniously wrought over the front 
instead of buckles, and on the side flaps." 

In the days of the Spanish 
governors, immigration was the 
question of paramount inter- 
est. Don Pedro Piernas, in a 
message to the governor-gen- 
eral at New Orleans, called his 
attention to the fact that many 
settlers "from the English Illi- 




nois" were making their 



Mississippi River Steamer 



On the strength of these 



homes on the west side of the 
river, in and around St. Louis 
favorable reports, the second governor, Don Francisco 
Cruzat, was instructed to be ever mindful of the matter of 
immigration, and make attempts to induce the sturdy sons 
of Canada to forsake their native heath for what were sin- 
cerely thought to be the advantages of living in the pros- 
perous village of St. Louis. To show how enthusiastic the 
Spanish government was on the subject, it is necessary to 
mention here that 40,000 pesos was set aside as an immi- 
gration fund. And when Charles Dehault Delassus was 
made governor of St. Louis in 1799, Gayoso, the governor- 
general at New Orleans, sent him the following instruc- 
tions : "I recommend to you Messrs. Chouteau, Ccrre and 



14 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

Soulard. Please do whatever ^-ou can for them without 
showing any injustice to the rest. You must consider it 
a policy that^ this being a time of general peace, it is not 
advisable to form or encourage new settlements, unless 
with Canadian people. These are generally the people we 
want. You can try to get information as to how it wdll 
be best to bring people from Canada at the smallest ex- 
pense. You must not let the public notice you have 
adopted this policy. You understand that in things which 
cause interest and excitement you have to act with a great 
deal of tact." 



St. Louis 1856-65 — View from Lucas Place 

But the Spanish control was not to last much longer. 
Louisiana, having been re-transferred back to France by 
secret treaty, was, in 1803, ceded to the United States. And 
with the passing of the territory out of the hands of all 
foreigners, St. Louis took a new lease of life. The shackles 
which had been placed around the growing village were 
now a thing of the past ; the thongs which had bound the 
lusty child were torn asunder. No longer would it be 
necessary to curb ambition in the way Eamon de Lopez y 



Early History. 15 

Angulo, the governor-general at New Orleans, had advo- 
cated, when he heard of the aggressiveness of certain 
Americans at St. Louis and sent the following message to 
Delassiis : "Notwithstanding the advantage which may re- 
sult from the working of an iron mine in your country, ac- 
cording to the plans presented to you by an American, 
David Wilcox, which you enclose to me in your communica- 
tion of the 28th of November last, it will not be advisable 
to permit any American or foreigner to establish works in 
our possessions. Therefore, you must decline his propo- 
sition, not giving him to understand the reason why. You 
will do the same with all foreigners that may come, es- 
pecially when they want concessions of land and establish- 
ments in this province.'' 

The matter of popu- ^ ^1 

lation should engage 
our attention now, for 
the very excellent reason, 
that with all Ameri- 
cans the number of 
people in their towns is 
a matter of pride and a 
source of knowledge, ,,. , „, , ^ 

'^ View from Water Tower 

whereby they can out- 
distance their opponents in argument, when the important 
question arises as to the size and wealth of our various 
cities. It is well, in its way, to say that to-day St. Louis 
has a population of some 700,000; but though this might 
fill a number of optimistic souls with rejoicing, the im- 
portant point to remember is whether the growth is recent 
or the slow outcome of accretions covering a large space of 
years. If we hark back to 1799, when the last Spanish 
governor, Delassus, took the census, we will find that in the 
settlement of St. Louis there were six hundred and eighty- 
one white people, fifty-three mulattoes, six free negroes, 




IG St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 

and two hundred and sixty-eight slaves. But outside the 
palisades were living twelve hundred and three white set- 
tlers. This is mentioned because when Captain Amos 
Stoddard raised the American flag in 1804 he found that at 
least three-fifths of the rural population was American, 
while in the settlement of St. Louis four-fifths was French 
and Canadian. Already, in 1780, Shadrach Bond had 
brought to the banks of the Mississippi a colony of people 
from Maryland and Virginia, and though they settled for a 
time on the east side of the river, between what is now East 
St. Louis and Kaskaskia, quite a number later on crossed 
the river to St. Louis and made their homes in the adjoin- 
ing rural districts. Added to this there were certain for- 
eigners, described in the early chronicles as Germans, just 
because they were not either French, Canadian or Ameri- 
can, who made a goodly quota in the population outside the 
settlement. (In those days, and some years later, for that 
matter, all people coming from Europe were loosely spoken 
of as Germans, because, to our uninitiated minds, all the 
European countries outside England and France belonged 
to Germany.) 

On account of the number of people who settled beyond 
the palisades the increase in the rural population was con- 
tinuous, and before long the American element, growing 
steadily towards the French settlement, not only influenced 
the offspring of the first colonists into a better appreciation 
of American ideas, but in the course of two or three dec- 
ades changed the complexion of the town so that it prac- 
tically lost its foreignness. 

It is not often that the modern reader when looking for 
literary entertainment selects a city directory whereby to 
quench his thirst for knowledge. I doubt whether there is 
any reader to-day who has this special hobby. But with 
the writer who sets before him the task of writing of cities, 
the conning of early records is absolutely necessary, and 



Early History. 



17 



what could be more interesting and more instructive than 
an early product of this unliterary sort? In the first 
Directory of the City of St. Louis, published in 1821 by 
John A. Paxton, there are seven hundred and forty-nine 
names, besides considerable information as to churches, 
schools, business manufacturing enterprises, and the pro- 
fessions. The following excerpt is not without interest: 
"St. Louis, besides the elegant Eoman Catholic Cathedral, 
contains ten common schools, a brick Baptist church built 
in 1818; an Episcopal church of wood; and the Methodist 
congregation hold their meetings in the old court house 
and the Presbyterians in the circuit court room. In St. Louis 
are the following m e r- 
c a n t i 1 e, professional 
and mechanical estab- 
lishments : Forty-six 
mercantile houses, 
which carry on an ex- 
tensive trade with the 
most distant parts of 
the republic in mer- 
chandise, produce, furs 
and peltry; three 
auctioneers ; three week- 
ly newspapers, viz. : St. Louis Inquirer, Missouri Gazette 
and *S'^. Louis Register, and as many printing offices; one 
book store; two binderies; three large inns, together with 
a number of smaller taverns and boarding houses; six 
livery stables; fifty-seven grocers and bottlers; twenty- 
seven attorneys ; thirteen physicians ; throe druggists ; three 
midwives; one portrait painter; five clock and watch 
makers, silversmiths and jewelers; one silver plater; one 
engraver; one tannery; three soap and candle factories; 
two brickyards; three stone cutters; fourteen bricklayers 
and plasterers; twenty-eight carpenters; nine blacksmitlis; 




St. Louis in 1866 

Looking West from Locust Street 

Henry Shaw's Home in the Foreground 



18 



St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 



three gunsmiths; two copper and tinware manufacturers; 
six cabinet makers; four coach makers; seven turners and 
chair makers; three saddle and harness manufacturers; 
three hatters ; twelve tailors ; thirteen boot and shoe manu- 
facturers; ten sign painters; one nail factory; four hair 
dressers and perfumers; two confectioners and cordial dis- 
tillers; four coopers; four bakers; one comb factory; one 
bell man; five billiard tables; several hacks or pleasure 
carriages, and the considerable number of fifty-seven drays 
and carts; several professional musicians; two potteries 
within a few miles, and there are several promising gardens 
in and near to the town.^' 

__^ Few people realize 

W* "^ the various elements 

which enter into the 
making of a city. 
In our uncritical 
moments we are given 
to decidedly super- 
ficial judgments. We 
speak disparagingly of 
certain cities because 
the hustling spirit is 
not paramount. And in our hastiness to arrive at con- 
clusions our mental clarity is only too often obscured. St. 
Louis is no longer the conservative city that a flippant 
criticism has made it out to be, nor is it the greatest 
hustler on earth. It is steady in its growth, whether this 
be a matter of population or the educational improvement 
of the people. Its normality is a bit restful after the rush 
and roar so characteristic of other American cities. But 
when this is said, the writer does not wish to convey to the 
reader's mind that enterprise is lacking. If there are 
still with us some of the vestiges of the conservatism which 
has been handed down to us by the early French colonists, 




St. Louis River Scene 



Early History. 



19 



there is also the high endeavor which the modern spirit 
engenders. St. Louis should not be thought a Southern 
city^, in the sense in which all people living on the Atlantic 
seaboard regard Southern cities — namely, as one that 
takes things so easily and is so decidedly self-satisfied and 
self-sufficient that progress must beat hard on its walls be- 
fore it gains recognition. Though in a part of the United 
States that might be regarded "in the South'^ by those who 
seldom study their geographies and depend for their opin- 
ions on hearsay, it has enough of the Northern flavor to 



V 




Eads Bridge and Levee 

show that it is in the vanguard of progress. True, it has 
had its backsets, just as other American cities have had, 
and though its greatest retardation was experienced during 
the Civil War, on account of the conflicting opinions which 
made of it a storm center, its life as an enterprising com- 
munity was only temporarily imperiled. 

If I dwell on these facts at length it is only to empliasize 
the more the exuberant youth of the modern city. It has 
been my experience, and no doubt the experience of many 
St, LouisanS; to hear strangers express surprise that St. 



20 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

Louis is not the old and somewhat decrepit city, with a 
constant blanl^et of smoke overhead, that their imagina- 
tions had pictured. They are not thrown into convulsions 
of delight, be it understood, but they are disillusioned 
in the best way possible, for what strikes them most 
forcibly is that the Americanism which is altogether too 
strident in many of our mushroom towns is here tempered 
by enough conservatism to make it quite attractive. 
And thus we can very easily trace back to the begin- 
nings of St. Louis an influence which came into the life of 
the colony with the advent of the French settlers, and 
that all the years which have since passed have not been 
able thoroughly to eradicate. But, on the other hand, the 
influences which are so necessary a part of the civic life of 
all American cities are by no means a negligible quantity. 
Were it otherwise, St. Louis would not be in a position to 
justify its claims as a city that has a regard for progress, 
education, and some of the beautifying effects so sadly 
neglected in most of our American cities. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE STREETS AND THEIR BUILDINGS. 

The River Streets — The Old Cathedral — Merchants' Ex- 
change — Fourth Street — The Court House — Charles F. 
Wimar — Francis Grierson's Reminiscence of the Planters' 
House — Broadway — Missouri Athletic Club — Washington 
Avenue — Henry Shaw's Residence — Mercantile Club — 
Olive Street and Its Tall Buildings — Custom House and 
Post Office — Twelfth Street and its Few Modern Build- 
ings — Christ Church Cathedral — City Hall Park and its 
Horticultural Attractions — The Undignified Statue of 
General Grant — A Criticism of the City Hall — The New 
Municipal Courts Building — Four Courts — Union Station 
and its Resemblance to a Bastioned Gate — The Coliseum 

— Uhrig's Cave and its Past Glories — Humboldt Build- 
ing — ■ University Club — The Woman's Club — Young 
Men's Christian Association Building — Vandeventer Place 
and What it Stands For — The Odeon — St. Alphonsus 
(Rock) Church and its Graceful Spire — The Metropoli- 
tan Building — St. Francis Xavier's (College) Church — 
Lindell Boulevard — St. Louis Club — St. Peter's Episco- 
pal Church — Lindell Boulevard as an Object Lesson — 
Temple Shaare Emeth — Columbian Club — The New 
Catholic Cathedral — The View from the Comer of 
Lindell Boulevard and Kingshighway — Westmoreland 
Place — Portland Place — Racquet Club — First Church 
of Christ, Scientist — Tuscan Temple — Four Weil-Built 
Corners — St. John's M. E. Church, South — Temple Israel 

— The Second Baptist Church — Kingsbury Place — 
Washington Terrace — Hortense Place — Wednesday Club 

— The Attractiveness of the South Side — South Grand 
Avenue — Compton Place — Flora Boulevard — Liederkranz 
Club — St. Francis De Sales' Church — The Absence of 
Historic Buildings — Soulard Market. 

ONE would not come to St. Louis to see broad avenues 
lined with historic structures, but one would be 
amply repaid were the desire a survey of some of 
the prettiest residential streets in the United States. Al- 
though, in the matter of age, St. Louis can count years 
whereas other American cities can count only days, so to 



22 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

speak, the historic buildings which are now standing are 
few and far between. Wliether their disappearance is due 
to a lack of veneration on the part of the citizens, or to the 
inroads of age which played havoc with them, it is not 
for the present writer to decide. But the glaring fact 
faces us that the wayfarer in search of the historic would 
be greatly disappointed. 

But, when it is a question of modern ideas, as expressed 
in streets that tell the story of prosperity applied to pur- 
poses of comfort and beauty and a commendable sense of 
the artistic, St. Louis makes a good showing. These streets 
are not confined to the West End, where the wealthy reside, 
but can be found without difficulty on the South Side, a 
section of the city that is more or less Teutonic. In fact, 
throughout the town one comes upon spots that appeal to 
the eye on account of their beauty, and indicate in no un- 
certain way that the home is an important factor in the 
civic life of St. Louis. A thought that continually recurs 
to one's mind as one walks about the newer parts of the 
city is how very recent must be its growth, since everything 
looks so invitingly clean, from the color of the bricks or 
the stone to the neatly kept lawns, with hardly a blade of 
grass out of place. Taking houses separately, this might 
be a slight exaggeration, but in the aggregate the effect 
is as has been described. 

The best way to describe the to^vn to the stranger would 
be to divide it into a north side and a south side, with 
Market Street as the division. If one were to come into 
St. Louis on a steamboat, as was done in the good old days 
when railways were not so numerous as now, and arrive at 
the foot of Market Street, one would have to climb the 
levee (a tedious undertaking, by the way, on account of 
its incline and the roughnesses of its paving) before reach- 
ing the first real street of the city. This is Main Street, nar- 
row and old and rather shabby, and given completely over 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 23 

to the sort of business that necessitates the almost constant 
loading or unloading of drays and trucks. Second Street, 
just one block west, has no grander proportions, but is 
less taken up by wagons that are only meant for loads 
which strain horses' backs. Looking up and down this 
street from Market Street, we see before us a narrow and 
tortuous road that once, so history records, was highly 
praised by the French settlers on account of the elegance 
of its homes and its nearness, not only to the Mississippi, 
hut to the open country farther west. If there is a trace of 
its former glory anywhere it would take many days of 
patient hunting to find it. But the stranger need not 
linger here long, for to be quite candid, nothing but an 
invincible love of commercialism could make him halt his 
footsteps. Third Street, while not the linndsomest busi- 
ness street that one can imagine, is 
so much cleaner, and its buildings t 

are so much better than on the other 1 

streets which we have named, though A 

the narrowness still prevails, that ^^ 

we ought to take hope and feel that JH 

the climb we have made up the in- ' W , 

cline from the levee has not been ^^.a^- :, 3j PBSs8. 
without some reward. And that th'.' |f|]S3ErH E "b™ 
reward for wandering througli a ttUjIlf I i » 
section of the city but little fre- fe^^U ■ 
quented by the citizens of St. |^^^^B^hL!JL 
Louis themselves, unless called 

. . ^ ... Old Cathedral 

hither on account of business, is a 

genuine one, we would stop the wayfarer at once in front 
of the old Catholic Cathedral, which is the most historic 
church in St. Louis. This venerable pile of stone on Wal- 
nut Street, one block south of Market Street, was com- 
pleted in 1834, and is an excellent specimen of the Renais- 
sance style, with huge Doric columns at the entrance. Its 



24 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



dimensions are one Imndred and thirt3'-six feet by eiglity- 
four feet, and when we remember how early in the history 
of St. Louis the church was built, we cannot but wonder 
at its size. The spire, diminutive alongside the spires 
of our modern churches, is built on the primitive lines 
which one sees to-day in the provincial churches of 




Merchants' Exchange 

Europe; but the kindly hand of Time has softened the 
straight lines by an elusive touch here and there, so that 
the general effect is fascinating enough. The chimes, con- 
sisting of six bells, were brought from France. The 
Cathedral was consecrated on the 26th of October, 1834. 

Walking along Third Street, in a northerly direction, 
we arrive at the Merchants' Exchange, which is situated at 
the northwest corner of Third and Chestnut Streets, one 
block north of Market Street. This large and imposing 
stone structure is peculiar in that unlike most buildings of 
this sort its exterior is not encrusted with meretricious 
ornaments to attract the eye of the uncritical. Simplicity 
and unostentation seem to have been the keynote of the 
architect's plan, and what with the mellowing which time 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 25 

and the usual smoke have effected, we have here a building 
that is not all youth and crassness. Fronting two hundred 
and thirty-three feet on Third Street and one hundred 
and eighty-seven feet on Pine and Chestnut Streets, it is 
really not one building, but two. The eastern part, which 
faces Third Street, is arranged for offices, while the west- 
ern, separated from the former by a court twenty-seven 
feet wide, with open arcades along Pine and Chestnut 
Streets, is occupied by the Exchange Hall. This hall is 
two hundred and twenty-one feet long and ninety-two feet 
Avide and has a ceiling some ninety feet above the floor. 
Seventy windows, arranged in two tiers, admit the light 
of day, and if this is mentioned with some emphasis it is 
because so few buildings, which are now erected, pay the 
proper heed to light and the possibility of admitting fresh 
air through large window space. Not a column or other 
obstruction is in the hall. The woodwork is of solid wal~ 
nut, mahogany and other hard woods, and is attractively 
finished. The frescoed ceiling is divided into three com- 
partments, each containing a grand medallion. The cen- 
tral figure is emblematic of St. Louis and is surrounded by 
groups typical of the agricultural, mineral, and industrial 
products of the Mississippi Valley. The group of figures 
to the north represents the four quarters of the world 
bringing their various offerings to the West, which, with 
outstretched arms, offers its products in exchange. 

The two end compartments are composed of geometrical 
divisions, each containing four panels, with emblematic rep- 
resentations of the industries of the State of Missouri in 
bas-relief. 

In the center of each compartment is a medallion 
twenty-six feet square. The one on the north end repre- 
sents characteristic types of European nations — England, 
Germany, Italy, France, Scotland and Ireland, forming 
a central group, surrounded by Kussia, Switzerland, Spain, 
Slavonia, IJuropean Turkey and Greece. 



26 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



The south medallion represents characteristic types of 
Asia,, Africa, Arabia, Egypt, Judea and Japan, forming 
the principal group, surrounded by Ethiopia, Caucasia, 
India, Persia, Abyssinia and Mongolia. The hall was 
ready for occupancy the 21st of December, 1875. 




Fourth Street North of Pine Street 



Leaving Third Street and directing our steps westward 
along Chestnut Street, we ■ arrive on Fourth Street, which 
some thirty years ago was the principal retail street of the 
city, though even at that time Fifth Street, now Broad- 
way, was snatching some of the laurels from its brow. Here 
we are at the top of the hill, so to speak, and Avhat is 
l)etter, on a street that has enough widtli to make a satisfy- 
ing picture. While no longer popular in the sense of being 
frequented by thousands of shoppers, it is still a street that 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 



27 



sliows ]i(i sioiis of (lecny. The buildings are a inixture oC 
old mid new. and wliilc^ ilu! old ones cannot hold their heads 
quite so liigh as lh(> new, they ave far from heing in a state 
oC dilapidation. 

If we turn southward now, we are within a stone's 
throw of a building that merits attention, for its solidity, 
its simplicity, and its age typify the best elements which 
St. Louis can put forth to the stranger in the way of his- 
tory and those qualities which can withstand all untoward 
criticism. The Court House is a source of pride on account 
of this, but what makes it doubly interesting to him who 
tires of newness, as expressed in monster otftce buildings, is 
the fact that it has been able to hold its own against the 
ravages of time and the onslaughts of those enterprising in- 
dividuals who have 
small respect for what 
is old. The corner 
stone was laid on the 
21st of October, 1830, 
and the occasion was 
made memorable l)y 
the address which Wil- 
son Primm delivered . 
Xow although the 
necessary enthusiasm 
was not lacking, the 
years that passed be- 
tween 1843 and 1851 
did not witness any 
material manifestation 
of tlie flight of time. But in the year last named activity 
became apparent, and the east wing of the building was 
commenced. The erection of the south and north wings of 
the building dragged along in a rather exasperating way 
until 1859, when enough enthusiasm and energy were 



1 








Ifc^Sii^ 



Court House 



28 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

brought to bear on the matter to effect the completion of 
the structure. This happy occurrence took place in the 
summer of 1862, and at last the citizens were gratified to 
see their wishes realized, though as usual there was some 
grumbling on account of the expenditure of what was con- 
sidered in those days a foolishly exorbitant sum — one 
million two hundred thousand dollars. 

The building has the form of a Greek cross and its 
dome is said to rank among the finest in this country. The 
lantern at the top of the dome commands an excellent view 
of surrounding points, and the unwearied traveler who is 
proof against fatigue and willing to see "everything/"^ 
might profit by putting his hardihood to the test in the 
matter of climbing innumerable steps. Thomas D. P. 
Lanham drew the original design for the dome, but upon 
its being rejected, William Rumbold put his inventive 
faculty to work on a new design, which is the one we see 
to-day. The height of the dome from ball to sidewalk is 
one liundred and ninety-eight feet, and from the top of 
the flagstaff, two hundred and forty feet. The rotunda is 
sixty feet in diameter and the four circular galleries add 
to its attractiveness. On the four sides of the dome are 
historical paintings that at the time of their execution 
ranked among the best work of the lamented St. Louis 
artist, Charles F. Wimar, whose talent, if not genius, was 
not appreciated until many years after his death. They 
are now rather dim with age, and the efforts at restora- 
tion, which clumsy hands have essayed, have proved both 
ineffectual and disastrous. On one of the panels is por- 
trayed the discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto, on an- 
other the landing of Laclede on the site which afterwards 
became St. Louis, on still another the Indian massacre at 
St. Louis in 1780, and on the fourth panel, a western land- 
scape. In the top gallery can be seen Wimar's conceptions 
of Law, Commerce, Justice and Liberty. But, let us add 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 20 

here, to see this rarely gifted artist at his host, a trip to 
the Art Museum is necessary. 

Eetracing our stops, we soon reacli tlie Planters' Hotel, 
a modern hostelry Avhicli would not arrest our attention 
but for the site upon which it stands. This is historic, 
since it was once occupied by the Planters' House, an un- 
pretentious building, to be sure, but one that was bound 
close to the history of the city. Francis Grierson, in his 
recently published volume, "The Valley of Shadows," 
makes the following comment: "The Planters' House! 
AVhat did it not represent in the history of the Far West 
in the early days! To me it was St. Louis itself. This 
famous hotel typified life on the Mississippi, life on the 
prairies, life on the cotton-fields, life in the cosmopolitan 
city. It stood for wealth, fashion, adventure, ease, romance 
— all the dreams of the new life of the Great West. It 
was the one fixed point where people met to gossip, discuss 
politics and talk business. It was the universal rendezvous 
for the Mississippi 
Valley. Here the 
North met the South, 
the East met the 
West. It looked like 
nothing else in the 
hotel world, but it 
always seemed to me 
it was intended more 
for pilots, river-c a p- 
tains, romantic ex- 

, J, . Fourth Street from Market Street 

p 1 r e r s, lar-seemg 
speculators and daring gamblers. 

"It was here the goatee type was seen in all its perfec- 
tion. On some of the chins the tufts of hard, pointed hair 
gave a corkscrew look to the dark faces, which somehow 
harmonized with the eternal quaffing of mint- juleps, 
sherry-cobblers, and gin cock-tails. 




The Streets and Their Buildings. 



31 



"An hour spent in the Phmters' House just before the 
great election was an experience never to be forgotten. 
All who did not want to shoot or be shot steered a clear 
course in some other direction, for here, in the bar lobbies, 
were the true ^fire-eaters' to be met, and while some had 
already killed their man, others were looking for a man to 
kill/' 

Broadway is reached by walking one block west on 
Chestnut Street, and directly we reach the corner a vista 
indicative of a shopping district is opened up before our 
eyes. This is best realized by looking north from Chest- 
nut Street. Although no longer the only street that has 
the best shops, it is still of interest to all those individuals 




01i\e Street West of Fourth Street 



32 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 





II 



lllliiiiim 
Iffffffrrffj 



who are ever on the alert when the question of wearing 
apparel is uppermost in their minds. Moreover, being 
the direct route to theaters and restaur antS;, it is a favorite 
promenade at night. Most of the buildings are modern, 
and what with the many electric lights which have recently 

been installed — their 
number is too large to 
make an accurate esti- 
mate — its allurements 
cannot be denied. The 
street has for years 
had a safe place in the 
opinion of the citizens 
of St. Louis, and no 
rivalry seems to affect 
for long its reputation 
as a shopping district. 
After leaving 
Chestnut Street and 
walking north we soon 
reach Olive Street, a 
canyon-like cut in the 
topography of the town. A cursory glance at this street 
must suffice for the present, since it is best to pursue one's 
way due north on Broadway, until Washington Avenue is 
reached. This, one of the broadest, if not the broadest 
street in the business district, is flanlved by substantial 
buildings, which contain on their ground floors some of the 
best shops in the city. 

Instead of wending our way toward Sixth Street, which 
is the real pivot of Washing'ton /^.venue's prosperity, 
it were best to Avalk a block eastward, since at the corner 
is the Boatmen's Bank Building, the upper floors of which, 
and part of the lower, are occupied by the Missouri Athletic 
Club. On the top floor, which is the seventh, is a gym- 



iJJlifiil" 



Missouri Athletic Club 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 



33 



nasiiim that has all the appurtenances which properly be- 
long in a place of this sort. Boxing tournaments and 
other athletic feats are held here. On this floor are also 
four well-lighted hand-ball courts, a boxing room and two 
thousand lockers. The sixth and fifth floors are arranged 
for sleeping quarters, and unlike most St. Louis clubs, 
which look somewhat askance at having their members 
enjoy the privilege of bedrooms within the supposedly 
sacred precincts of the club-house, the management has 
supplied the members with no fewer than ninety-eight 
sleeping rooms. The fact of this club being in the business 
section of the city makes this provision doubly welcome. 
In the basement is a swimming pool eighty feet in length 
and twenty in width, which is lined with porcelain tiling 
and supplied with artesian water from a well on the 
premises. 




Sixth Street and Washington Avenue, Looking West 



34 



St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 




Seventh Street North of Pine Street 

Eetracing our steps along Washington Avenue and walk- 
ing a distance of two blocks, we come to Sixth Street, where 
it would be well to pause, if only to contemplate the bustle 
incident to a congested shopping district. Not so many 
years ago but that the memory is yet in the minds of the 
quite youthful, Washington Avenue, even as far river- 
wards as Broadway, was almost completely a thoroughfare 
of wholesale houses. If it had any attractions, they were 
not apparent to the close observer unless he was interested 
in solemn-faced exteriors. But all this has been changed 
and to-day Washington Avenue, from Fourtli Street to Ninth 
Street, is a veritable picture of animation. In short, we 
have in the crowded parts of this street an excellent kaleido- 
scopic panorama of the variegated life of a large city. 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 



35 



and walking two 1 ducks 



Tiirjiing into Sevciitli Street 
south^ Avc coiuo to tlie Mercantile (Jlul), which is housed in a 
substantial building on the site of Henry Shaw's town- 
house. The corner was, during Henry Shaw's occupancy of 
tlie house, a bit of old. St. Louis that seemed an anaclironism 
among tlie shops which grew up alongside it and seemed 
to frown at it for its perversity in remaining m a neighbor- 
hood where it was no longer wanted. Wlicthcr the owner 
ever communed witli the picturesque mansion to get at its 
true feelings — even liouses that liave the high values of 
enduring landnuirks must have sensitive nerves ! — or 
whether the desire to liave the house nearer the garden spot 
tliat his money and 
love of horticulture 
had created, was the 
impelling motive that 
prompted the pro- 
vision in his will to 
the effect that at the 
discretion of the ad- 
ministrators its re- 
moval should be ef- 
fected, is not within 
the knowledge of the 
present historian, but 
two years after his 
death the old house 
vanished from its 
accustomed site, and 
a public that had not 

lost completely an appreciation of healthy sentiment 
rise up again, without the slightest change, in what was 
Shaw's Garden, but is now the Missouri Botanical Garden. 

But the building which replaced it is not an unsightly 
structure. It not only has good architectural lines, but a 
high-pitched roof that faintly reminds one of those 




Mercantile Club 



aw it 



36' St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

fascinating houses which Hamburg and Nuremberg are 
quite willing to harbor, despite the onslaughts of the 
modern builder. The club proper enjoys considerable 
popularity among the business men of St. Louis, since it 
is not only a place where men meet to eat their meals and 




Eleventh and Olive Streets, Looking East 

while away an hour at billiards or at cards, but has for its 
object the forgathering of the best business minds the city 
can boast of, in the cause of reforms and for the advocacy 
of measures, on behalf of the city's welfare, which shall 
yield the happiest results to the community. 

Pursuing our course south on Seventh Street, we are 
again on the street which has already been criticized none 
too favorably as the canyon of our city's topography. Just 
why the ingenious modern builder singled out Olive Street 
for the erection of some of the tallest office buildings in 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 



37 




the city, is not clear to the writer 
of this book, since no street in the 
business section could be worse 
adapted to bear with dignity and 
grace sky-shivering structures for 
cliff-dwellers. Be this as it may, 
the street is evidently the victim of 
those who have allowed their busi- 
ness acumen to blind them to tlie 
simplest tenets of the much-talked 
about, but rarely heeded, prob- 

, . 1 T • ,1 1- J- Chemical Building 

lems involved m the realization 

of a '-'City Beautiful." The Chemical Building, at tlic 
northeast corner of Eighth and Olive Streets, is an ex- 
cellent specimen of tallness that has the power of reducing 
the strip of sky on a narrow street to proportions tliat 
make it look like a bluish-black ribbon that is none too 
clean. But perhaps the smoke has something to do with 
this. 

Directly across Eighth Street is the Custom House 
and Post Office. By contrast with what our eyes have just 
rested on, this building creates a pleasant impression that 
fortunately is not fleeting, but enduring enough to give us 
the pause we really need, to recover from tlie obsession 

caused by contemplat- 
ing too many modern 
structures. Here arc 
liarmony, beauty of 
line, and enough of 
grace to appeal to the 
critical, and thougli 
the gray granite is 
grayer than it should 
be, on account of a 
Custom House and Post Office layer of smoke and 




^iLd ^uiuiiiim 



38 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 




dust that has fastened upon it (washings, though re- 
peated at shorter intervals than actually take place, would, 
we fear, be ineffectual in restoring its pristine color), the 
thought, which arises from viewing this Renaissance struc- 
ture, is that the Federal Government is decidedly against 
the tawdry in the matter of archi- 
tecture. Although the foundation 
was started in 1873 — the basement 
walls are red granite — the super- 
structure was not completed until 
1884. But time is a small matter 
with Governments, be they Federal, 
Imperial or Eoyal, when buildings 
which are put up to last are under 
construction. 

Continuing our walk along 
Olive Street, we arrive shortly at 
Twelfth Street and breathe a sigh 
of relief once more because of its 
But though it has all the allure- 
ments which we, as superficial loiterers, would think must 
attract the enterprising builder in search of the right place 
to exhibit his most cherished wares — tall office buildings — 
few structures that demand a craning of the neck are here. 
With the exception of the Jefferson Hotel, with its twelve 
stories, and the Star Building, with its ten stories, all the 
buildings are squat, and the impression this thoroughfare 
makes, from Washington Avenue to ]\Iarket Street, is one 
of shabbiness with isolated spots of freshness and newness. 
At this point one historic spot in the vicinity of Twelfth 
and Locust Streets should not be overlooked. By walking 
one block west Christ Church Cathedral is reached. If 
English ivy could be made to grow against the blackened 
walls of this English Gothic structure, the illusion would be 
complete, for one could easily imagine himself in some 



Christ Church Cathedral 



generous dimensions. 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 39 

English Cathedral town, despite the un-English buildings 
opposite on Locust Street. Although begun some time 
berore the Civil War, it was not finished until Christmas 
Da}', 1867. The erection of the tower, wliich has been 
delayed these many years, is now under contemplation, and 
with its completion the church will no doubt take a new 
lease of life : by which is meant that its rejuvenation will 
be a guarantee of its remaining years longer in a neighbor- 
hood that is already blatantly commercial. 

Passing along the section of Twelfth Street between 
Olive and Market Streets, as quickly as possible, so as to 
avoid viewing the dilapidated buildings, which were not 
even in the first flush of youth, some thirty years ago, when 
Lucas Market occupied the center of this broad street and 
added life to the neighborhood, we find ourselves vis-a-vis 
the City Hall. The park, which surrounds this municipal 
building whose height is somewhat spoiled by an excessively 
cumbrous roof, is as pretty a bit of horticultural effort as 
anyone would wish. In summer, especially, the velvety 
sward, interspersed with beds that show excellent taste in 
the selection of flowers, brings relief to the eye wearied 
by the sordidness of the surrounding buildings. A park 
that covers two city blocks in the heart of an American city 
is unusual enough to merit praise, even though, as in this 
case, its beauty is somewhat marred by the mediocre 
statue of General Grant, which a wise municipal judgment 
has consigned to a part of the grounds not often visited by 
strangers — the part that faces Clark Avenue. 

The City Hall was begun in 1891, but it was some years 
later before it was completed. I use the word "some" out 
of deference to those delays which are unavoidable, and not 
because there need be any condoning of those avoidable 
obstacles which, whenever a municipal building is erected, 
crop up with a persistency that tries the nerves of even 
the most patient citizens. But in this respect St. Louis is 



40 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



not worse off than other American cities ; in f act^ when we 
read the lurid reports of the slow processes characteristic 
of municipal architectural undertakings elsewhere, an 
optimistic feeling that breeds content should be ours. 




City Hall 

The building is thrte hundred and seventy feet long 
and two hundred and five feet wide, and its spacious in- 
terior has all the advantages that amplitude can grant. 
The delegates' chamber and the council chamber are apart- 
ments that invite only the friendliest criticism^ even thougli 
at times they may be the scene of unnecessary wrangling. 
The rotunda has a beautiful marble staircase that makes 
this part of the building imposing. At first glance, the 
French chateau style of architecture seems in consonance 
with one's ideas of how a City Hall should be built, since 
it takes one back to early times in European history when 
the Town Hall was the artistic center, architecturally 
speaking, of every community, and housed a picturesquely 
garbed mayor and the well-nourished members of his cor- 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 



11 



poration. But in an American city it seems a bit out of 
place — an anachronism, to be more explicit, on account oi' 
an ornateness that is incongruous with the simplicity which 
is always associated in our minds with the heads of civic 
affairs. 

The new Municipal Courts Building, now in course of 
erection directly west of the City Hall, will be more pleas- 
ing to the eye, for the French Eenaissance in its best estate 
will be followed. It will be constructed of granite, Bed- 
ford stone, brick and concrete, and when completed will 
house the entire Health Department on the ground floor. 
The other floors will be occupied by the five Criminal 
Courts, Police Department, Juvenile Court, Attorney's 
offices, etc. The Municipal Jail is to be erected immediate- 
ly south of the main building, and will cost some three 
hundred thousand dollars. 




■»»•«' 99Wt . 




■r 

New Municipal Courts 

The Four Courts Building is reached from the City 
Hall by walking along Twelfth Street, due south. Upon 
arriving at Clark Avenue a grimy edifice, that looks as if 
civic neglect had singled it out for its hardest blows, stands 
before us. WTiile the building itself has no attractions for 
us it is interesting on account of its being the home of the 



42 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

St. Louis Criminal Court, the Court of Criminal Correc- 
tion, the City Marshal, City Attorne}^, Coroner and other 
officials. It is said that the name of "Four Courts'^ was 
derived from the famous "Four Courts" of Dublin, 
Ireland; but similar to all adaptations of foreign names, 




Four Courts 

only the ludicrous is apparent. AMio among us has for- 
gotten those halcyon days when every third-rate theatre 
in this country was called a Grand Opera House ! 

Walking in a westerly direction on Market Street we 
soon gain Eighteenth Street, and find ourselves in the 
presence of Union Station, which is so distinctive a build- 
ing and stands out so prominently in this neighborhood 
of mean houses, that attention is at once riveted upon it. 
(Why is it that in most of our cities the railway stations 
can be approached only through a maze of buildings, 
which, for some unexplained reason, seem never to be 
within the ken of the ambitious real estate speculator and 
builder in their onward march in the service of progress?) 
That part of the station which faces Market Street has a 
frontage of six hundred and six feet, ample enough for any 
station, and is built of Bedford limestone. The south 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 



43 



and west walls are of gray brick above, and of buff Eoman 
brick below the roof of the train shed. The roof is covered 
with Spanish tiles of a color to match the stone walls. 
A free treatment of the Romanesque style of architecture 
has been followed, and by stretching one's imagination 
just enough to call up one^s knowledge of medieval times, 
one may liken this imposing and artistic building to a 
bastioned gate of those far-away times. If the much- 
criticized Terminal Association, which is in control of the 
station, paid but small heed to the architectural meaning 
of their building, they certainly builded better than they 
knew, for this modern elaboration of a feudal gateway 
typifies, in more ways than one, the "serene, indifferent to 
Fate'' attitude of the owners of the onlv railwav entrance 




* til 



Union Station 



and exit of the city, to the grumbling of the dissatisfied 
merchants, whose complaints have already passed from a 
whisper to an almost constant roar. But this is a matter 
of so controversial a nature that it has no place in a book 
which takes a cheerful view of things. 



44 St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 

The Grand Hall on the first floor is of regal propor- 
tions. Its barrel-vaulted ceiling rises to a height of sixty- 
five feet above the floor. The walls start with a dado 
of dark green faience blocks. Between this and the 
bracketed frieze (eighteen feet from the floor line), the 
plain wall surfaces are lined with scagliola in tints and 
veinings of green and yellow. The brackets of the frieze, 
the capitals of the clustered columns, and other orna- 
ments in relief, are touched with gold leaf. The orna- 
mental ribs of the vaulted ceilings are covered solid with 
gold. The ceiling panels are painted in a greenish-yellow, 
enriched with stencil work. The deeply recessed back- 
ground of the end-arches and arcaded galleries is in a dull 
blue, giving them strength, immense depth, and distance. 
The end walls of the Grand Hall are pierced with an arch 
of forty-foot span. The sweep over the arch, between a 
rich quirk bead in solid gold and the ceiling-angle, is 
decorated with low relief tracery, emerging from female 
figures with torches in their uplifted hands. These 
figures are placed at radiating lines, seven on each wall. 
The building was erected in 1895 and the architects were 
Theodore C. Link & Son. 

No doubt, by this time, the wayfarer is foot-sore and 
eye-wearied, so it would be wise to take an Eighteentli 
Street electric surface car and travel northward to Wash- 
ington Avenue, where, with a transfer, a trijD on a west- 
bound electric car will take him to Jefferson and Washing- 
ton Avenues. Upon leaving the car he will see a sub- 
stantial three-storied red brick building of no archi- 
tectural pretensions that is built on the lines usually fol- 
lowed in convention halls. This is the Coliseum. The 
hall has the distinction of having the largest seating 
capacity of any hall in the United States, the maximum 
capacity being about eighteen thousand. During the ses- 
sion of the American Medical Association the Eegistration 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 



45 



Bureau will be installed here, as well as the Commercial 
and Scientific Exhibits. 

On the site of this building was once Uhrig's Cave, 
which was really a garden, and not a cave, to the casual 
visitor, though rumor had it that a number of caves were 
underground. Many a youthful mind in the early eighties 
was moved to a state of romanticism on account of the 
mystery attaching to these subterranean passages, but the 
initiated knew that their only glory was that once upon a 
time they had been used for storing beer. Uhrig's Cave 
in its palmy days was the scene of operatic perform- 
ances, and, if I mistake not, Gilbert and Sullivan's 
"The Mikado" received its initial presentation in this 
garden. After some years of prosperity it went the way 
of most things that fail to keep pace with the advances a 
critical public always demands. 

Washington Avenue, from Jefferson to Grand Avenues, 
tells a tale of past prosperity, and if houses, which were 
once inhabited by the prosperous but are now emblems of 
disheartening deterioration, are of any interest to the 
loiterer, he will find ample material to hold his attention. 
Arrived at Grand Avenue, he will see directly in front of 
him the Humboldt Building, which houses a goodly num- 
ber of the medical profession. Turning his steps north- 
ward, the University Club is the next building which will 
attract his notice. 




Coliseum 



46 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



The architecture of this building is artistic enough to 
indicate that the architect^ who drew up the plans, was not 
devoid of a sense of proportion and the value of ornamenta- 
tion in the way of terra-cotta. When the club bought 
their present quarters, the Iniilding was rated the hand- 
somest residence in 
St. Louis, and though 
many rivals have since 
sprung up, it manages 
to hold its own as an 
excellent expression of 
the art of architecture. 
Within, it has com- 
modious rooms which 
have undergone but 
slight changes since 
the building passed 
into the possession of 
the club, for tlie in- 
terior decorations, as 
r e g a r d s woodwork, 
mantels and staircases, 
were of so high a de- 
gree of perfection that 

University Club ,. ■,'-,, 

even the slightest 
change would have amounted to a desecration. 

Making a slight detour here, we are soon opposite the 
building occupied by the Woman's Club. This organiza- 
tion received its incentive just prior to the Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition in 1904, and though it was an inno- 
vation in St. Louis clubdom, its existence is far from pre- 
carious. In fact, so prosperous is this club that already 
rumors are abroad of a desire to acquire larger quarters. 
The building is an old-fashioned three-storied double 
"stone front" house of the period Avhen comfort, and not 



M 


|ii£ia;^^ 4^' 





The Streets and Tttetr Buildings. 47 

outward orncamentation, was the outstanding quality of 
St. Louis residential architecture. Within, everything is 
arranged to further the amenities of cluh life. A hall- 
room of goodly proportions, delightful within, ])ut an 
architectural nightmare without, since the l)uilder took no 
thought of the building upon which he was fastening his 
bizarre idea, is an invaluable adjunct, for throughout the 
winter season it is the scene of many balls and musicales. 
Again pursuing our Journey in a northerly direction 
along Grand Avenue, we reach, in a few minutes, a five- 
storied brick building, the home of the Central Branch 
of the Young Men's Christian Association. The entrance 
to the building is on Franklin Avenue, and a broad double 
marble staircase leads to a spacious rotunda on the second 
floor, from which opens the office of the branch. On this 
floor are the Association Hall, an auditorium seating 
nearly one thousand, the Lecture Hall, seating two hun- 




St. Louis Woman's Club 



dred and fifty, the Beading Room, Parlor, and other rooms 
devoted to Association activities. The Physical depart- 
ment contains a large gymnasium with running track, 
baths of various kinds, a swimming-pool, bowling-alleys, 
lockers and dressing-rooms. 




48 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

Walking now along the opposite side of the street^ the 
sightseer is greeted by an expanse of shrubbery, trees and 
grass, grateful indeed in its effect, after wanderings 
through many streets that are bare of anything that 
might give shade whereby to rest the eye. Vandeventer 

Place has a distinction 
which no other "Place" 
in St. Louis has, for 
though it has a past, a 
present, and let us hope, 
a future, it has never 
changed an iota for the 
worse. This distinction 
may strike the stranger 

Vandeventer Place ^g 13^^^^^ ^f ^^ moment, 

but to the man born and bred in St. Louis it means that 
the changes wrought in other streets, which once were 
fashionable, have never been allowed the slightest chance 
to place their blighting touch on this fair spot. Grand 
Avenue, in close enough proximity to this residential 
quarter to drag it down to its lower level of business and 
reconstruction, might just as well be blocks away for all 
the effect it has had in bringing about the slightest muta- 
tion. 

Both sides of the "Place" are lined with substantial 
abodes that are not mere houses, but homes in the best 
sense of the w^ord, for they look as though they had be- 
longed to the occupants long enough to be peculiarly 
their own. Moreover, that first indication of a step down- 
ward in the history of an American street, the tell-tale 
"For Pent" sign, has never had a welcome here. 

Re-crossing Grand Avenue, and w^alking a short dis- 
tance, two buildings, neither of them impressive from an 
architectural standpoint, loom up for our notice. The 
first is the Central High School, of which mention will 



Tjte Streets and Their Buildings. 



49 




lit Hi III ti 




be made in another chap- 
ter; the RoeoDfl, the 
Masonic Tempi f, po])u- 
larly known ms tlie 
Ocleon. Tliis white brick 
building is five stories in 
heiglit and has an audi- 
torium which seats some 
two thousand people. 
During the winter season 
many concerts take place 
here; the concerts by the 
St. Louis Symphony The Odeon 

Orchestra being the most frequent. The acoustics arc 
admirably adapted for musical performances^, and, what 
with the chaste interior decorations, the comfortable 
chairs, and the spacious aisles, man's creature comforts 
are nicely looked after. The Section in Surgery will hold 
its meetings in this well- arranged hall. 

On the same side of the street but some steps farther 
north, is St. Alphonsus (Eock) Church. The exterior is 
worthy of study, since it presents an almost perfect picture 
of English Gothic architecture. Inside, there are many 
features that make for artistry. 
The altars, five in number, are of 
hand-carved Carrara marble, and 
the sixteen stained glass windows, 
representing scenes in the life of 
Christ, are so beautiful that no 
one, after seeing them, can doubt 
that this art is still at high-water 
mark. The exquisitely propor- 
tioned spire shoots clean into the 
upper spaces, and has that grace 
of contour which reminds one 
of what Schelling, the German 




St. 



Alphonsus (Rock) 
Church 




50 St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 

2'>hilosoplie]-, really meant when lie said ihat archi- 
tecture was "frozen music." ISTo other material hesides 
stone has heen used in the exterior, and even the Avail sur- 
roundin^ii' this unusual ecclesiastical edifice is of the same 
material. Hence its name, with the people, of Rock Church. 

Retracing our 
steps along Grand 
Avenue, with here and 
there a glance at the 
shops and at some of 
the old-fashioned resi- 
d e n c e s interspersed 
with the modern struc- 
tures, w^e are not long 
in reaching the corner 
of Grand xivenue and 

St. Francis Xavier's Chui.h ^-, . ^m i -n j_ 

Olive [Street, without 
exception the most populous up-town corner of the city. 
At the northeast corner is the Metropolitan Building, the 
largest doctors' office building in the city, a modern struc- 
ture of white glazed brick, eight stories in height. Cross- 
ing Olive Street with ever an eye on surface cars and auto- 
mobiles, our course lies southward past the new Princess 
Theater toward Lindell Boulevard. 

At the southwest corner of this spacious street our at- 
tention is at once fixed on an ecclesiastical pile of stone 
that is an excellent architectural lesson, since it shows the 
advantages that the Gothic of the Transition Period has 
over the enriched and debased Gothic with its elaborate 
and expensive carvings. Massiveness, symmetry and bold- 
ness are the salient features that speak from the walls of 
St. Francis Xavier's Church, and he would, indeed, be 
a dullard who would not be moved to a show of en- 
thusiasm by their appeal. The front elevation on Grand 
Avenue shows unmistakably the high values of the Gothic 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 51 

which was adopted. All the entrances are flanked by 
massive masonry and cut stono, and are siirinoiinted l)y 
independent gables standing out from the main wall, but 
connected with it by heavy weathered roof stones. The 
inner arch of the front entrance differs in form from the 
main arch. It is prepared to receive, in bas-relief, the 
representation of the Last Judgment. The moulding of 
this arch is what is called the dog-tooth moulding, some- 
thing peculiar to the early English style. The main front 
wall contains a handsome rose window, eighteen feet in 
diameter, deeply recessed. The rose window is set in a 
panel with clustered columns, which support a deeply 
moulded and hooded arch. 




Interior of St. Francis Xavier's (College) Church 

But it is the interior of the church that holds us fa^t 
on account of the High Altar, which is not only lustrous 
with marble, but shows in each and every turn of its 
sculptural lines the deft touch of the artist. It rises, in 



62 



St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 



the center of the apse, to a height of thirty-seven feet 
above the sanctuary floor. But its height, while important 
enough to note, on account of its unusualness, is as noth- 
ing compared with the lesson that is brought home to us 
of the superiority of Carrara marble to all other marble, no 




Lindell Boulevard, Looking West from Grand Avenue 

matter what its local fame may be. The side altars, while 
smaller, attest similarly to the worth of hand carving, 
when it is effected by means of a cunning that approxi- 
mates to the unusual. 

Of Lindell Boulevard much could be written, for its 
length, its width and the general style of its houses — some 
brick, some stone — make up a unit such as we do not find 
on any of the other long residential streets, where every 
now and then some incongruity obtrudes itself to disturb 
the evenness of our tempers. It sweeps freely, independ- 
ently, and quite in the manner of an arrogant person who 
knows his worth and value, and in defiance of all criticism, 
from Grand Avenue to Kingshighway, a distance that can- 
not be calculated in feet. The rather steep incline from 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 



53 




St. Louis Club 



Grand Avenue prevents 
a bird's-eye view of its 
full length and its varied 
attractions^ but after 
mounting this incline 
and resting in front of 
the St. Louis Club^ the 
survey is the sort that 
comes only from spacious- 
ness. 

The St. Louis Club represents in the concrete tlic city's 
commercial prosperity, for most of the members belong to 
the class that has money, or is supposed to have. The 
building cleverly reproduces French architectural ideas 
and its "Mansard'^ roof is not without distinction. In 
truth, Jules Hardouin-Mansard, were he living now and 
a visitor to this city, would not smile superciliously, in 
the manner of most foreigners, upon viewing it. The 
mottled brick which covers the walls has already the ap- 
pearance of age, and this, in a comparatively new build- 
ing, is really an admirable adjunct. But what is most 
striking about the club, aside from its architectural 
beauties, is the fact that it opens its doors to the wives of 
the members, quite ungrudgingly, and thus offers an ex- 
cellent lesson in unselfishness. 

After the richness 
and massiveness of 
the architecture of St. 
Francis Xavier's, the 
simplicity of St. 
Peter's Episcopal 
Church, at the south- 
east corner of Lindell 
r)0ulevard and Spring 
sr. t'pror s Kpisr^opai <.:hurcn Avenuc, is not uiiwd' 




54 St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 

come. Not that the former had a cloying effect on ns — 
it is too perfect a specimen of the st3'le of architecture it 
represents for that — or that the latter is interesting enough 
to make us stand before it agape^ but its lines, falling from 
the high level of St. Xavier's, and not demanding close 
study on account of any fascinating perfections, bring to 
our somewhat tired eyes and wearied brains the grateful 
sensation which results from mental relaxation. Who has 
not stood entranced before a Eubens painting, held fast by 
the brilliance of its coloring, and then turned to a simple 
Dutch interior by Gerard Dou, with gratitude ? 

A short distance beyond the St. Louis Club the Boule- 
vard forks, the narrower section at once taking the name 
of McPherson Avenue. The spot where this takes place 
is covered by an ornamental lamp-post with quite a large 
number of lights. In a city where street ornamentation 
is not too greatly encouraged, this isolated demonstra- 
tion of the possilnlities of lighting in the residential 
streets should not be passed over as of no moment. 

On a summer afternoon, when the weather is not too 
hot, a stroll on the Boulevard is not fatiguing, for the 
trees are plentiful enough to shade the sidewalks, and the 
deep lawns with their close-cropped grass grant the repose 
which the eye demands when wearied by too much sun- 
light. And even on bleak wintry days, or worse still, 
when the air is yellow with smoke and fog, walking on the 
Boulevard to the point where it dips into Forest Park is 
somehow more enjoyable than on other thoroughfares. To 
one who has closely studied the effects of light and shade 
in city streets, the obscurities of atmosphere on some have 
seemed less than on others ; and though I would not contend 
that the haze is less on Lindell Boulevard, just because the 
gods always favor the rich, I am, nevertheless, of the opin- 
ion that it is less dense and less saturated with these ob- 
jectionable and irritating particles which invariably lodge 



The Steeets and Their Buildings. 55 

in one's eyes and throat. Perliaps its very spaciousness 
mny have something to do with this : a surmise that would 
not be a foolish lesson wlien our city fathers contemplate 
the layin<^ out of new streets. 

Strolling along we soon reach Vandevcnter Avenue 
where on the southeast corner stands Temple Shaare 
Emeth, a concrete example in rough stone of a departure 
from Orientalism. On the opposite side of the street, a 
short distance from the corner, is the Columbian Clul). 
The building is three stories high, has an ample frontage 
and a cleanly look on account of the ])uff-colored brick 
used in its construction. Within, it is commodious, and 
the entrance-hall and staircase have a spaciousness few 
clubs possess. The finishing is in hard wood, and what its 
outside lacks in those elegancies which the modern sight- 
seer demands, is compensated for by taste and artistic 
display within. 

For some distance beyond Vandevcnter Avenue the 
Boulevard is somewhat monotonous, on account of the 
smallness of the houses and the neglect of the gardens, 
but from Sarah Street to Boyle Avenue a more interesting 
part is passed, and beyond this point, until we reach Forest 
Park, there is nothing to cavil at. 

Besides the really beautiful 
residences that meet the eye on 
either side, there is one building in 
the course of erection that is so 
large, so dominating even in its un- 
finished state, til at were we to 
speak of it in but a few words, Columbian ciub 

we would lay ourselves open to the charge that we are not 
appreciative of the gigantic in ecclesiastical architecture. 
We are now speaking of the New Catholic Cathedral at 
the northwest corner of Lindell Boulevard and Xewstejid 
Avenue. People in the Western States are apt, when they 




56 St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 

indulge in comparisons^ to drop into the colloquial phrase: 
"Well^ anywa}^, it^s larger than anything they've got in 
New York," especially when buildings are the topic of 
conversation. But in this instance, even though the mem- 
ory of St. Patrick's Cathedral is fresh in our minds, to 




New Catholic Cathedral 

make the right sort of comparison — of course, we are re- 
ferring only to size — it would be necessary to bring before 
the mind's eye the proportions of the new Byzantine 
Eoman Catholic Cathedral in Westminster, London. But 
even with the thought of that enormous mass of brickwork 
before us, we are not in a position to realize the gigantic 
proportions of the new Cathedral, since in all its dimen- 
sions it outdistances its English rival. The style of archi- 
tecture is Eomanesque, and the material gray granite of a 
texture that only the quarries of Concord, New Hampshire, 
yield. The interior design will be an excellent example of 
the Byzantine, and will show in the varicolored marbles, 
in the gilding and the mosaics, a modern interpretation of 
what the earliest ecclesiastical architecture stood for. Color 
values, as they pertain to interior church decorations, are 
not always studied as closely as they should be by the 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 57 

decorator, but as regards the new edifice promise is made 
that the hand of the artist Avill have full sway. The seat- 
ing capacity will accommodate between three thousand and 
four thousand people ; and though these figures may appear 
astounding at first glance, a cursory examination of the 
Cathedral cannot but verify their truthfulness. But what 
is best of all for those who delight in churches only from 
an architectural point of view, is the promise that when 
the dome is completed it will have sufficient height to 
attract attention, even in distant parts of the city. What 
person, be it asked, who has some regard for the archi- 
tecture of his town, is not interested in the domes and 
spires that declare their decorativeness far above the dust 
and sordidness of the usual street and neighborhood ? 

Those among us who have been to Paris may recall — 
and who can forget the first sensation caused by the 
glorious view? — the eight avenues which radiate from the 
Gate of the Star at the head of Champs Elyse'es. While I 
am not so foolhardy that I would for a moment compare 
the part of Lindell Boulevard upon which we are standing 
with the undying glories 
of the Paris view, I am, f 
nevertheless, faintly re- 
minded of it every time 
I gaze around from this 
point of vantage. For 
from here may be seen 
a section of Forest Park 
that is as pretty a sylvan 
spot as one could desire : 
Lindell Boulevard to the 

west, narrowed down somewhat, but running its straight, 
clean course out to Washington University; Westmoreland 
Place, with its trees, its shrubbery, its liomcs of elegance 
and comfort; Portland Place, hugging close to Westmore- 




58 St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 

land Place, as if it felt in need of the elder place for social 
prestige; and, lastly, Kingshighway, which has the width 
and the swing without which no street need compete for 
first honors. 




Racquet Club 

Turning into Kingshighway, then, and walking in a 
northerly direction, we pass the ^^Places'^ already mentioned, 
and before long are opposite a severely plain five-storied 
brick structure whose architecture cannot, by any stretch of 
the imagination, be called even slightly ornate. This is 
the Eacquet Club, but recently organized, and blessed with 
an exuberance of youth that is most commendal)le. The 
Eacquet and Squash Courts and the Gymnasium are in- 
dicative of a desire on 

the part of the members , -^— — --- 

to engage athletics. ^.^^^^^^Ktl^^^^k. 
The fact of the club be- ^_J|^^^^^a^^^^^P 
ing situated in what is • j^n^gll^l^^^^^^fcAl : 
colloquially spoken of as ■HJBilH^^^^^^^^^H 
"the best ' part-'' of the W^ ^i^aiJBi^BBB 
cit}^, is an advantage that SI^'- ■ ' - --r-^^^^^^^^^^^^^S 

cannot be gainsaid. First church of Christ, Scientist 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 



59 




Tuscan Temple 



In front of ns is the 
First Church of Christ, 
Scientist, a substantial 
building of dark red 
brick that stands some 
distance back from the 
street, in grounds which 
have considerable attrac- 
tiveness. The churchy 
while making no pre- 
tensions to architecture, has some good lines, and withal 
is a welcome addition to the newer buildings in the 
neighborhood. 

A little farther north, on the same side of the street, is 
the Tuscan Temple, the most luxurious meeting-place of 
any Masonic lodge in the city. The inviolability of the 
oath the members take is well expressed in the style of 
architecture, for though the huge columns do not stand, 
for aught but ornamentation, the windowless front may be 
considered emblematic of disapproval of tongues that wag 
too readily. In short, the building seems to express con- 
tempt for those whose weakness runs to tlie telling of all 
they know. 

The four corners, which arc made by the intersection of 

^ Washington Avenue 

w i t h Xingshighway, 
are covered with l)uild- 
ings far al)ove the 
average. T li r e e of 
them are clothed in 
equal dignity, for the 
structures are dedi- 
cated to tlie uplift 
wliich comes from a 

St. John's M. E. Church, South deep religious fccliug. 





60 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

The fourth, on the other 
hand, is devoted to 
materialism in the 
shape of a modern 
hoteL AAQiat other four 
i corners in the resi- 
^ dential part of the city 
.™-_ _ ^ ^^^ make a similar 

Temple Israel i^Q^g^. p 

Adjoining the Tuscan Temple is a very good example 
of the Italian Renaissance, adapted to the exigencies of 
space and the purposes for which the structure is intended. 
St. John's M. E. Church, South, has the distinction of he- 
ing the first edifice erected on the three corners, and hy 
its salutary lesson it taught the others that church archi- 
tecture need not necessarily be a mass of brick and stone 
thrown together in higgledy-piggledy fashion. That they 
profited by the lesson cannot be denied. The auditorium 
is eighty feet square, and seats six hundred. The bell- 
tower is reminiscent of Florence. 

Across Washington Avenue, from the church just men- 
tioned, stands a building that is unusual, in as far as its 
architecture takes us back to the times when Greek culture 
and Greek art were in their heyday. Temple Israel, by its 
Doric columns with 
ornate capitals, its pedi- 
ment, its architrave, and, 
especiall}^, by the ^^urity 
and severity of its lines, 
is a declaration to all 
passers-by tliat Oriental- 
ism, as expressed in 
stone, need not be an in- 
tegral part of a modem 

synagogue. While there second Baptist Church 





The Streets and Their Buildings. G1 

may be some who will object to a radicalism that makes 
light of past traditions, the fact remains that so long as 
nothing definite is known of the architecture pertaining 
to Herod's Temple — what have not been the wranglings of 
antiquarians over this matter ! — a complete secession is far 
better than any bastard imitation. 

The third corner is 
embellished with a 
church edifice that has 
so many architectural 
points of value that 
a careful study of 
them would be most 
profitable. The Second Kingsbury Place 

Baptist Church is an excellent illustration of judgment, 
perspicuity and a desire to lend assistance to the realization 
of the Utopian dream — a City Beautiful. Lombard 
Gothic architecture is not often duplicated in this country, 
for the reason that its difficulties are not easy to surmount; 
hence, praise should be meted out to this successful at- 
tempt. The group of buildings consists of a main depart- 
ment on the left and a chapel on the right, united by two 
loggias. Betw^een the buildings and the loggia is a sunken 
garden, in the center of which is a water mirror, to reflect 
the buildings in the sky. The most distinctive feature of 
the wdiole structure is the Campanile, which is no rank 
imitation, but an excellent reproduction of some of the 
salient points to be found in the Campanile of Giotto at 
Florence. 

Turning due west now and pursuing our walk along 
Washington Avenue, we pass many charming homes, in- 
dicative of considerable thought in the way of diversified 
architecture. The gardens are smaller than on some of the 
other streets in what is known as the West End, and the 
houses in closer intimacy with each other on account of the 



62 



St. Louis : Its History axd Ideals. 




Washington Terrace 



narrowness of the 
building lots, but 
taken all in all the 
part of the street, 
between K i n g s- 
h i g h w a y and 
Union A v e n u e, 
makes an agree- 
able impression. 

On the west 
side of Union 
Avenue, near Del- 
mar Avenue, are 
the entrances to 
two of the most attractive "Places" in St. Louis. The one 
nearest us — supposing that we are still near the corner of 
Washington and Union Avenues — is Kingsbury Place ; and 
though its entrance must have cost the builders considerable 
time and labor and the owners of the ground a tidy sum, it 
has all the hall-marks of ostentation and disproportion. 
The nude figure, the work of a St. Louis artist, is cleverly 
done, but it would look much better elsewhere, since it is 
dwarfed by the columns on either side. Washington Ter- 
race, which is north of Kingsbury Place, fares better in 
this respect, for its entrance is a modest exhibition of the 
builder's art. Moreover, red brick, when toned down by 
age, is so much less garish than white stone that has the 
persistency to remain white despite dust, smoke and rain. 
Both "Places" are graced, however, by houses that have all 
a modern soul could wish for as to size and comfort. 

The streets which I have attempted to describe by no 
means exhaust the list of the thoroughfares in the West 
End which are worthy of separate notice. But the idea 
was to convey to the reader just enough knowledge of 
what lie might see, if the inclination impels him to walk 



The Streets and Their Buildings. 



G3 






through a section of the city that 
has many residences and gardens 
which are above the ordinary. Nor 
have I exj^atiated on all the 
"Places," for their number, wliile 
not so large as that of the streets Hortense Place 

which should come in for notice, is of sufficient magnitude 
to preclude mention of all. One "Place/' in particular, 
which has been overlooked by the writer, deserves a fcAV 
lines, if only to call the visitor's attention to the possibili- 
ties of a short strip of ground sandwiched between other 
streets. Hortense Place illustrates this better than any 
other "Place," for its natural advantages were few and its 
dimensions decidedly limited. But a wise judgment did 
not go unrewarded. 

Before leaving this part of the city I would call the 
visitor's attention to the building of the Wednesday Club at 
the corner of Taylor Avenue and Westminster Place. To 




Wednesday CUib 

reach this building from where T It'l't tlie visitor, it would 
be necessary for liim — provided he is foot-sore l)y tliis time 
— to take the McPlierson Avenue electric car at the corner 
of Euclid and ^McPherson Avenues, and then dismount at 
the corner of Taylor Avenue and Olive Street. After 



64 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



walking one block south, Westminster Place is reached. 
While there is nothing particularly attractive about the 
building — the roof looks as if it were tired of its position 
and most anxious to emulate a landslide — it is the only 
literary club controlled by femininity in the city that has 



i 






V 




1 


s 


KiAri 


•«»? 


-^ 


w 


KC ^ 


Jam 


^s 


9 







Compton Place 

its own club-house. This distinction was not won through 
herculean literary labors that were rewarded thus by public 
benefactors, but was the outcome of perseverance on the 
part of the members. The auditorium is commodious and 
an excellent place for lectures. 

For some reason, which has never been satisfactorily 
explained by philosophers, certain parts of a city are more 
frequented by sightseers than others, though the neglected 
sections may have attractions that are far from despicable. 
^^^lether strangers act altogether on the advice of their 
mentors and thus form prejudices which deprive them of 
instruction in unbeaten paths, or whether their acumen is 
at fault in the matter of seizing upon what would yield 
profit in the way of sightseeing, is too difiicult a problem 
for the present writer to solve. But the fact remains that 
a part of St. Louis with attractions that are the equal of 
those in the West End is seldom visited by the wayfarer 
who abides with us for a short time, though when ques- 
tioned he will show by his remarks that he is quite sure he 



The Streets. and Their Buildings. G5 

has seen all there is to be seen, having exhausted the 
treasures of the West End. I am now speaking of the 
South Side. 

To reach the heart of the residential district on the 
South Side, it were best for the visitor to take the Grand 
Avenue electric car, anywhere the length of Grand Avenue, 
and get off at the corner of Grand and Lafayette Avenues. 
Here he will find himself directly opposite Reservoir Park, 
with Grand Avenue running south and Lafayette Avenue 
running east. Walking along Grand Avenue, on the east 
side of the street, he will soon arrive at Compton Place, a 
residential quarter with winding roads that are kept up 
after the manner of park roads, and houses that show no 
eccentricities on the part of the builders, but are indicative 
of excellent architectural ideas in the way of comfort, 
solidity and unostentation. The trees and the grass have 
a healthier hue than in the West End "Places'^ — smoke in 
this part of the city being less dense, the blighting effects 
are not so evident — and as for the flowers, they attest to 
the Teutonic love of horticulture. 

Flora Boulevard, 
which is a short dis- 
tance beyond, is one :~ ' jk" !■ 
of the newer 'Tlaces'^ MlJk ^KJ 
on the South Side. Its HBfl^^^0^|^^^|^|^m 
name is a misnomer, Jj^^pBHHByL-P^lfin^plHi 
since it is altogether **"W^ ■ ' " " -t!'"" ^ 
too short a street for Hgb^ . ^^BIH 
so dignified a charac- 
terization, and, more- ^'^^'^^ Boulevard 
over, has all those unmistakable and salient features which 
are always associated in one's mind — at least in a St. 
Louisan's mind — with the make-up of a strip of ground 
that has been raised to the dignity of a "Place." The resi- 
dences, while not jerry-built, have not enough architectural 
distinction to hold the visitor's attention for long. 



66 



St. Louis: Its IIistoky and Ideals. 




Liederkranz Club 



If I have dwelt at too great length on the aforesaid 
"Places/' it was with no intention of slighting South 
Grand Avenue. A stroll along this street will at once con- 
vince the visitor that he is on a thoroughfare that is well 
worth seeing. The liouses on either side are large, and 

some, if not all, com- 
pare favorably with 
the residences which 
are tucked away in 
''Places." The street 
has the spaciousness 
which admits of ex- 
tensive views and the 
cooling breezes so 
desirable in the sum- 
mer. In truth, it is not 
surprising that the South Siders affect this street as a 
promenade, all the way from Lafayette Avenue to the 
entrance of Tower Grove Park — a no inconsiderable dis- 
tance. 

Although there are two clubs on the South Side — the 
Union and the Liederkranz — which are of equal social im- 
portance, the latter is so t3q:)ical of the life of the German 
that mention of it, in connection with a description of this 
part of the city, is not without point. The Liederkranz not 
only has a large membcrsliip, but its entertainments are of 
a character that bespeak the intelligence of the members 
in the matter of German literature and music. 'No better 
concerts are given at any club than take place there, and i f, 
occasionall}^, a singer of prominence is engaged to lend 
assistance, the dependence on outside talent is not so 
necessary as witli other clubs, since tlie meml)ers are quite 
talented themselves. The "Schlaraffia," a society com- 
posed of some of the brightest German minds in the city, 
holds its meetings in a room whose furnishings take one 
back to Old Heidelbers:. 



The Streets and Titetr Ruildtngs. 



G7 



There are clmrclies on tlic Soutli Side that liave liistoric 
interest, and others that are adniif%ble expressions of dis- 
tinctive styles of areliitocture. One in particuhir should be 
mentioned here: S(. Frajuis de Sales'. This Gothic pile 
of stone looms up prominently in a neighl)orhood whose 
hall-mark is a degree of shabbiness that is never absent 
from the poorer quarters of an American city. Be that as 
it may, the journey through a maze of uninteresting streets 
(unless a Jefferson Avenue car is taken and a stop made at 
Jefferson Avenue and Lynch Street, with a walk two l)locks 
west) will not be without reward, for this piece of Gothic 
architecture is the sort that brings home to us the truth 
that our American cities would boasorry lot, architecturally 
speaking, were it not for 
sporadic manifestations 
of older and approved 
forms of architecture. 

Of the historic spots 
which once made the 
South Side interesting to 
tJie visitor, no vestige re- 
mains. The older streets, 
which once held them, 
are not only smelly and 
in a melancholy state of 
dilapidation, but what is 
worse, the factory pro- 
jectors have done their 
work so well that it 

would take a more acute ^t. Francis De Sales' Church 

eye than, I take it, the visitor i)ossesses, to ferret out the 
sHghtest trace of their once having been worthy of study. 
Yet tliere is one place on the South Side that takes one 
back to those early times when the Gallic atmosphere was 
more evident in this, the oldest part of the citv, than it is 




68 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



to-day. Soulard Market is to-day the same as it was many 
years back: the same as regards the haggling over viands 
and the gesticulating which invariably accompanies the 
business transactions of the Teuton. The market-hall 
shows distinctive signs of age, but despite the mutations 
wrought by time, its clumsy architecture is with us still. 
Can the same be said of the noble mansion of Thomas H. 
Benton, for thirty years senator from Missouri? 




Soulard Market 



CHAPTER 111. 

THE PARKS AND PUBLIC GARDENS. 

A Comment on Parks — Frank P. Blair Statue — Romanelli's 
"Fountain Angel" — Forest Park — O'Fallon Park — St. 
Louis Place — Schiller Monument — Outdoor Statues and 
Busts — Fairground — The Old Fair Grounds — Compton 
Hill Reservoir Park — The Clarity of the Water — Lafay- 
ette Avenue — Lafayette Park — Washington and Benton 
Statues — Henry Shaw's Gift to the City — Tower Grove 
Park — Statue of Alexander Von Humboldt — Why the 
Shakespeare Statue is Inartistic — Missouri Botanical 
Garden — Its Rare Books — Dr. George Engelmann — 
School of Botany — St. Louis as a "Summer Town" — 
Delmar Garden — The Eccentricities of the St. Louis Car 
System — Suburban Garden — Forest Park Highlands. 

THE pleasure a visitor deri\es from city parks is not 
a fleeting one. No matter how interested he has 
been in other sights, what lingers longest in his 
memory is the recollection of having passed some pleasant 
hours in a region of rest that was far enough removed from 
the turmoil of life to make him forget its worries. All 
parks have not this quietude; some, in fact, on certain 
days, partake of the noise of the city ; but though this may 
happen every now and then, the noise is somehow different 
from what obtains in streets when crowds jostle each other 
and vehicles show their utter disregard for petty man's 
existence. St. Louis parks do not differ in this respect 
from others, since they have days when the number of 
people reminds one too much of the unrest in town, and 
when full enjoyment of their sylvan beauties is marred 
by the ever-moving crowds. But no visitor need select 
these days, for there are many others when a park, on 



70 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



account of its partial solitude, brings closer to the visitor 
the full significance of its raison d'etre. 

If I mistake not, it was Charlotte Bronte who said 
that, next to the Bil^le, nature was the greatest boolv in 
the world. And by this she did not mean the formal 

French garden of 
L e n t r e, with its 
rectangular effects, but 
the sort of nature that 
is most attractive when 
the artificiality of 
man's hands has not 
entirely destroyed the 
things which make for 
naturalness. N o w, 
though it must not be 
thought that the St. 
Louis parks are in a 
state of uncultivation, 
a wise judgment has 
prevented the complete 
submergence of the 
jDristine loveliness of 
those tracts of land 
which are a city's best 
donation to the people. 
And, in this respect, Forest Park is a case in point. 

By mentioning Forest Park first I do not wish to con- 
vey to the reader that its extensive area is so compre- 
hensive of all a park should contain that all the otlier St. 
Louis parks must suffer by comparison. The fact is, it 
has its good points and its bad, and whether the good out- 
weigh the bad must be left for the visitor to decide. But 
one thing it has which no other park can boast of, and that 
is large numbers of trees that are no saplings planted but 




A Wood— Forest Park 



The Parks and Public Gardens. 



71 




Mountain Lion- 
Forest Park 



yesterda}', but gigantic growths 
(as gigantism is defined in the 
middle-west) which give enougli 
shade to please any weary ""path- 
finder" who loses his way in these 
many acres. And when I say this, 
I am not unmindful of similar 
treasures which are in store for 
the visitor either in 'Fallon Park or in Carondelet Park. 
Forest Park begins where Lindell Boulevard, as under- 
stood by those who know only the popular part of the 
street, stops. At the entrance is one of those statues that 

]\ a V e all the un- 
attractiveness which 
results from an al)- 
sence of natural grace, 
emphasized by in- 
artistic modern dress. 
The P m a n to g a 
would have been out 
of place for Frank P. 

Bridge— Forest Park Blair, but was it 

necessary to give us a full-length portrait, when it is 
written in large letters in all books on art that if an 
artist insists on the reproduction of modern clothes, the 
sitting posture is 
more effective ? To 
counteract the impres- 
sion gathered from 
this statue, it would 
be well for the visitor, 
before entering the 
p a r k, to turn to 
Romanelli's "Fountain 
Angel," tlie gift of 'Mv. 





Bird Cage— Forest Park 



72 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 




Bird Cage — ^Forest Park 



David N. O'Neil, and 
note its grace and tlie 
artistic value of a dark 
figure against a white 
background. 

The birth of this 
park was a travail that 
was so checkered and 
so long drawn out, 
that mention of the de- 
tails cannot be other 
than an object lesson 
to all those citizens in smaller places than St. Louis, who 
have the forevisioning of the necessity of parks in their 
growing communities. Although the idea that the present 
site would be about the best place for a park started in 
1869, the obstacles, which were woven to circumvent its 
realization, indicate that in those days, just as to-day, there 
was always the obtrusion of the speculative mind to frus- 
trate a sincere attempt at improvement. St. Louis was not 
overwhelmed with a multiplicity of parks ; in fact, what is 
now known as the West End was devoid of any. Of course 
there were Lafayette Park, the Missouri 
Botanical Garden, and the beginnings 
of Tower Grove Park, but they were on 
the South Side, far removed from the 
spot upon which we are now standing. 
But at last efforts were not unavailing, 
and in 1872 the bill, which meant so 
much for this part of the city, passed 
the Legislature at Jefferson City. No 
prosaic speech before the State Legis- 
lature won the day, but a letter written 
by Captain Skinker, who, feeling him- 
self incapable of expressing his en- ^^l^oieS'^piri^'^^^ 




The Parks and Public Gardens. 



73 




thusiasm in inadequate prose, 
soared even al)ove the head of a 
Milton or a Byron, and played 
such havoc with the usual stolidity 
of our representatives at the State 
capital, that they hesitated no 
longer. And thus was Forest 
Park born. 

The park covers an area of 
nearly 1371 acres, and what 
gives it a peculiar interest is 

that its scenery is so diversi- Fountain-Hyde Park 

fied that it is attractive alike to the pedestrian and the 
man who drives a motor. In no part lias it the artificiality 
that cloys the senses, but everywhere there are indications 
that the hand that prunes the trees or weeds the beds, is 
guided by the thought that the park's reputation depends 
on a certain degree of wildness. It is so wide and open, 
except for a wood here and there, that one would not be 
far wrong in saying that it typifies the bigness that can 
only come from light and air. 

There are parks in the northern part of the city that 
are well worth a visit: 0' Fallon 
Park, for instance, with its hills, 
so difficult to climb on a hot day, 
or when weariness besets one 
after a stroll through some of its 
acres; Hyde Park, smaller and not 
so wild, with a picturesque foun- 
tain highly prized by those who 
frequent the place; St. Louis 
Place, which is really a park and 




SchiUer Monument 
— St. Louis Place 



not a "Place,' 
acceptation of 
thouorh it is a 



in the usual 
the word, for 
narrow strip of 



74 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

ground and covers only four city blocks, two of wliich are 
quite diminutive, it has a number of attributes which belong 
only to parks, and a statue, the Schiller Monument, that 
ranks among the best in the city ; and Fairground, the old 
Fair Grounds, which though yet in an unkempt condition. 




Lake — Fairground 

is cherished by many St. Louisans on account of its past 
associations. 

To reach 'Fallon Park after quitting Forest Park, it 
were best to take the Laclede Avenue car at the Lindell 
entrance, ride a short distance, and change at the corner 
of Laclede and Euclid Avenues, fortified, of course, with 
the usual transfer. Here a northbound Taylor Avenue 
car will carry the visitor to O'Fallon Park, and though the 
trip is through a part of the city that will not make him 
crane his neck too often, unless he is on the alert for 
'^everything that is to be seen,'^ it is long enough to lull 
his senses into the state of quietude that, I take it, is not 
an unimportant factor in the matter of sightseeing. Ar- 
rived at the park, he will not be disappointed, provided he 
does not expect luxuriance as to flowers and rare plants, 
and the gaily dressed crowds with which perhaps his mind 
bad pictured the phice. Instead, what will greet his eyes 
will be good park roads, a lake of ample proportions, and 



■ The Parks and Public Gardens. 75 

the hills, already mentioned, from where the views are 
very good. 

Upon leaving the i^ark, a "Bellefontaine'^ car going east 
on Florissant Avenue will take the visitor to St. Louis 
Place (the stop should be made on Heljert Street), which 
is of considera])lo interest, as was said before, on account 
of the statue of Friedrich Schiller, the German poet. This 
statue, the gift of Charles F. Stifel, was designed by 
Rauhe, and is an exact reproduction of the Schiller statue 
at Marbach, German}^, the poet's birthplace. 

Outdoor statues and busts are always of interest to the 
stranger, not only on account of the subjects they represent, 
but because they convey to him, beyond a douJjt, the 
artistic status of the people and the municipality. In the 
few statues which have been used for decorative purposes 
in our streets, there are not always indications that artistry 
has been consulted; but though this stricture applies very 
well to St. Louis, its application is not without point in 
other American cities. But when outdoor statues and 
busts, as they figure in St. Louis, are mentioned in a crit- 
ical sense, one should limit oneself to the statuary in the 
streets, for the parks are graced with such good speci- 
mens of this art that no city need be ashamed of thi'iii. 
The Schiller Monument bears witness to this, and he 
would be an over-exacting critic who would see any flaw in 
its make-up. 

By taking a westbound ''Bcllefontaine'^ car and chang- 
ing at Grand Avenue, and then continuing on a Grand Ave- 
nue car in a southerly direction, the visitor soon arrives at 
the old Fair Grounds, which to-day is a city park with the 
new baptismal name of Fairground. The word "fair,'^ in 
this instance, refers to the annual fairs which were held 
here for many years, and not to a state of things which 
could be characterized only by the alluring word "fair." As 
yet, as I said before, the park presents an untidy ai)pear- 




76 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

ance, but this is partly due to the fact that only recently 
has it been acquired for park purposes. ISTevertheless, 
strangers who visit it will not be too favorably impressed ; 
and as for those who knew it in its palmy days, when it 
shone with consideral)le effulgence as the place to take one's 

country cousins to see 
a real fair, it will be a 
genuine disappoint- 
ment, for no longer is 
the air shrill with de- 
mands to buy lemon- 
ade or the grass 
strewn with empty 
paper bags. Other 

Basins-Compton Hill Reservoir Park ^.^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ manners. 

If the West End has its Forest Park with which to 
impress the stranger, the South Side has its Lafayette 
Park, its Compton Hill Eeservoir Park, its Tower Grove 
Park, and the jewel of all parks and gardens, its Missouri 
Botanical Garden. By taking a southbound Grand Avenue 
car again, the sightseer is soon landed on the South Side, 
directly in front of the Compton Hill Reservoir Park, 
which is at the corner of Grand and Lafayette Avenues. 
This park has a number of distinctions which should arrest 
the stranger's attention. Its basins, containing the water 
with which the South Siders are supplied, is a lesson in 
civic improvement, for its clarity is an open chapter to all 
as to what the proper condition of water should be. When 
I recall the good old days — not so very old but that seven- 
teen years would cover them — that were celebrated for the 
muddiness of the water, and how indignant the citizens 
waxed when any criticism was passed on its deplorable 
state, I cannot but feel that great strides have been made in 
recent times. The park surrounding the basins is one of 
the most attractive in the cit}^ and though its size is 



The Parks and Plblic Gardens. 



77 



limited and trees are at a premium, tlie arrangement of 
the flower beds and the variegated beauty of their contents 
are the best sort of instruction in the possibilities of 
decorative horticulture. 

By turning into Lafayette Avenue and strolling down 
this residential street, which is not given up to business, 
although, according to the fate of other St. Louis streets, 
its age should long ago have invited the invasion of this 
enemy, we approach Lafayette Park, one of the oldest 
parks in the city, and one that prior to the cyclone, wliich 
devastated the South Side more extensively than any other 
part of the city, was the garden spot in this neighborhood. 
But though many of its old trees and all its shrubbery were 
lost at that time, it has recovered enouo:h of its original 
aspect to prejudice the stranger for it. 

Bounded by Mississippi Avenue 
on the east, Missouri Avenue on 
the west. Park Avenue on the 
north and Lafayette Avenue on 
the south, Lafayette Park covers 
an area of twenty-nine acres 
which are in a high state of culti- 
vation. Two statues add to its 
other attractions: one of Thomas 
H. Benton, designed by Harriet 
Hosmer; the other of Washing-ton, 
a reproduction by Hubard of Jean 
A n 1 i n e H o u d o n's well-known 
marble statue in the Capitol 
at Richmond, Virginia. The original was done from life 
and is considered the best likeness of Washington extant, 
and the replica in St. Louis, unlike most copies of famous 
statues, is no mean performance. Althougli badly placed, 
and on a pedestal altogether too liigh for tlie size of the 
figure, these detractions are not sufTieient to rob it of its 




Washington Statue 
— Lafayette Park 




78 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

intrinsic value. The Ben- 
ton statue, having the ad- 
vantage of a better posi- 
tion and a pedestal more 
in consonance with its 
size, is in its entirety 
more pleasing to the eye. 
Harriet Hosmer's work 
East or Main Entrance is enhanced by the fact 

-Tower Grove Park ^^^^^^ ^^^^^.j,^ ^^^^ g^^-^. 

monument at the entrance of Forest Park, of which men- 
tion has already been made, she had the good sense to dis- 
card modern clothes. But then, perhaps, her long sojourn 
in Italy and her thorough saturation with Italian art had 
something to do with her artistic point of view. 

Retracing our steps along Lafayette Avenue, we are 
again on Grand Avenue, where by taking a southl)ound 
Grand Avenue car we arrive, in about twenty minutes, at 
the entrance to Tower Grove Park. When the ground to 
this artistic breathing-place was donated to the city in 
1866 by Henry Shaw, St. Louis had very few parks. 
True, Henry Shaw had, some twenty years before, started 
a garden around his country home. Tower Grove, now the 
Missouri Botanical Garden, in close proximity to the tract 
of land which afterwards was to be called Tower Grove 
Park; but this was in reality an Englishman's country 
estate, and not a ^^lace for 
the benefit of the public. 

Although the donation was ^ " 1 ^> 

a princely one for those 



days and would not be 

considered beggarly to-cla}^, 

despite our very advanced 

ideas on tlie money qucs- ^^^^^ Entrance 

tion — there were nearly —Tower Grove Park 




The Parks and Public Gardens. 



79 




Drive — Tower Grove Park 



three luiiulrccl acres 

in the tract — there was 

some hesitancy on the 

part of the city as to 

its acceptance, since 

the provision Avas that 

tlie city was to pay for 

its npkeep as a park. 

Things went the way 

they always do when a 

city's administration is called upon to share an expense that 

is not ahsolutely necessary; hut despite some delays, work 

towards its realization went on at quite an encouraging 

pace, and, before three years had elapsed, the park was 

opened to the public. Tower Grove Park is a driving 

park in the truest sense of tliat much-abused expression, 

for the roads are as smooth as the most exacting driver 

could desire, and the vistas as charming as his esthetic 

sense, if he has this unusual quality, would demand. 

The ornamental gates at the Grand Avenue entrance, 
the statues, and the marble busts of celebrated musicians 




Lily Pond— Tower Grove Park 



80 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 




Water Lilies — Tower Grove Park 



grouped around the 
music pavilion — some 
of these were gifts of 
Henry Shaw himself 
— attest to the fact 
that though he gave 
the ground outright 
to the city, his 
knowledge of what 
should constitute a park and the use of his money were 
never withheld. And well it was that such was the 
case, for his knowledge was not a few crumhs, hut the 
whole loaf, so to speak, since he had made a study of 
botany and arboriculture, and, moreover, had inured him- 
self to the best methods for landscape gardening by means 
of the works of such men as Sir Hvedale Price, Repton, 
Grilpin, Loudon, Downing, and Alford. But the best ad- 
junct to his instruction came when he visited Europe, 
where he saw what many years had effected in the upbuild- 
ing of parks which were almost perfect. 



^Mji jk^ 




Amazon Lilies — Tower Grove Park 

An account of this park would not be complete without 
mention of the Avater lilies and their gigantic sisters, the 




The Parks and Public Gardens. 81 

Amazon lilies. The latter, 
especially, should not be over- 
looked, for nowhere else in the 
city can such enormous specimens 
be seen. They rest on a piece of 
water that is in a picturesque part 
of tlie park, and though one may 
not be a student of botany, so Humboldt statue 

wonderful is the growth of this ~ ^^^^ 
plant that attention is perforce riveted upon it. 

The statue, which appears to the writer emblematic of 
what Tower Grove Park really stands for to the student 
of arboriculture and botany — though, in a popular sense, 
it is a mere driving place to while away an hour or so — is 
the one which pictures that commanding figure in the 
world of science — Alexander Von Humboldt. This piece 
of bronze statuary is the work of Baron Von Mueller, of 
Munich, and though it were foolish to say that nationalism 
plays an active part in an artist's work, the thought that 
strikes one upon looking carefully at this statue is that 
perhaps no one but a German could have brought out so 
well the physical traits of the great naturalist. 

The pedestal of polished granite is eight feet high, and 
in each of its four sides a bronze bas-relief is set. The re- 
lief on the west side, fronting the main drive, bears the 
simple inscription, "Alexander Von Humboldt.^' A land- 
scape view of Mount Chimborazo is pictured on the soutli 

side, while on the 
north side there is a 
view characteristic of 
the Valley of the 
Amazon. But it is the 
east bas-relief which 
holds our attention 

Main Entrance „ 

-Missouri Botanical Garden longer tliau any 01 




82 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

the others, for there we read, underneath a life-like j^ortrait 
of Henry Shaw, the homage that he felt for this great man. 
The unaffected words run thus : ^'Tn honor of the most ac- 
complished traveller of this or any other age. Erected hy 
Henry Shaw, 1878.^^ 

Besides this statue there are two others which are not 
uninteresting from an artistic j^oint of view. The Shakes- 
peare and Columhus monuments have heen highly praised, 
but to the writer of these lines they are on a lower level 
of artistic excellence than the Humboldt creation. 
Especially is this true of Shakespeare, since the master- 
dramatist of the world is depicted with the amount of 
theatrical tawdriness which somehow all painters and 
sculptors seem to think must be an integral part of the 
portraits of actors and dramatists. But, in this respect, we 
are no worse off than other cities which have statues of 
Shakespeare; even Paris has to submit to a Shakespeare 
distortion that is decidedly inferior to the figure in Tower 
Grove Park. 

After passing through the north gate of the park, w^e 
find ourselves on Magnolia Avenue, and directly this street 
is crossed, we are alongside a high rough stone wall, whicli 
is the enclosure of the only park or garden in St. Louis 
that bears an international reputation. The Missouri 
Botanical Garden is the creation of one man, and not the 
composite result of many minds working at a tangent. It 
represents in its entirety the singleness of purpose of its 
founder, Henry Shaw. And so indelible was the stamp of 
this man's individuality on his work, that even though 
twenty-one years have passed since his death, the character- 
istics of the garden have not been affected. This speaks 
volumes for the Board of Trustees, to whom he bequeathed 
more than three millions of dollars for the upkeep of the 
place. But it also speaks much for the directing hand 
which is carrying out just such ideas that, we imagine. 



The Parks and Public Gardens. 83 

would be Henry Shaw's were he alive today. Mr. William 
Trelease is no novice in the work he is doing; rather is 
he wf'll-seasoned, having had four years' association witli 
Henry Shaw himself — he Avas called from the University 
of Wisconsin to take charge of tlie Henry Shaw School of 
Botany — and some twenty-one years as director of the 
Garden. 

Covering G5 acres^ and with an adjoining GO acres 
awaiting development^ the Missouri Botanical Garden pre- 
sents good examples of formal and natural gardening, in 
which over eleven thousand different kinds of plants are 
cultivated. In its administration each specimen is dis- 
tinctly labeled, so as to show its common name, Latin 
name, and native home. A key numljcr on each label 
facilitates tracing the individual history of every plant. 
The garden plan adopted is that of the formal English 
type, though with the nnusual feature of large numbers of 
different kinds of interesting or attractive ^^lants gi'own in 
beds separated by hedges, supplemented by an informal 
arboretum or grove. In the N'orth American synopsis, 






Gate-Cottage — Missouri Botanical Garden 

added since Henry Shaw's death, the open park-like style 
of planting has been introduced, on a general plan, as 
prepared by the late Frederick Law Olmsted, and in 
which, as in most of the designs of this famous artist, 
water figures prominently. Special groups of botanical 




84 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

interest are cacti, magiieys, palms and ferns, which are 
grown under glass; an open-air collection of about three 
hundred and fifty species, arranged botanically for the use 
of teachers and classes in the public schools; a collection of 
about the same number of medicinal plants, grouped ac- 
cording to their re- 
puted physiological ac- 
tion ; and a synopsis of 
the North American 
Flora, to which twenty 
acres of ground are de- 
voted, containing about 
one thousand five hun- 
dred kinds of native 
plants, botanically ar- 

Hedges — Missouri Botanical Garden ranoed. 

The botanical facilities of the garden, in addition to 
the living plants, include a herbarium of nearly three- 
quarters of a million of dried plants, representing the 
flora of the world, and a library very rich in treatises on 
botanical gardening, and related subjects. In the con- 
tents of the library is a collection of hundreds of herbals 
and other botanical works, published before the time of 
Linnaeus (1753), comprising rare books, some of them 
exquisitely illustrated, and many of them from the best 
printing establishments of their day: such as that of El- 
zevir, and ancient tooled bindings. The library is also 
rich in the proceedings of learned societies, and in botani- 
cal journals, represented by full sets, and includes an un- 
usually large number of extensively illustrated botanical 
works, now out of print, the contents of which are indexed 
by many hundreds of thousands of cards. Perhaps its 
most prized treasure is to be found in the unpublished 
notes and sketches of one of the greatest of American 
botanists, who at the same time was a most distinguished 



The Parks and Piblic Gardens. 



85 




Cactus House 
-Missouri Botanical Garden 



physician, Dr. George 
Engelmann. These notes 
and sketches fill sixty vol- 
umes, and include over 
twenty thousand individual 
studies. Among the special 
collections shelved in the 
library, is a large representa- 
tion of the literature of medicinal and poisonous plants. 
Though catalogued alphabetically in reference to the 
authors' names, the library is arranged on the shelves 
according to subjects. The art of illustrating plants is 
presented remarkably well in its different phases by the 
lithographs of the orchid journal, "'Beichenhachia/' the 
liand-colored steel plates of the "Flora Graeca" and the 
''Botanical Magazine/' as well as by the nature prints by 
Von Ettingshausen and Pokorney of the plants of Austria'. 
Other rarities among its illustrated works are a very un- 
usual set of Eedoute's ^'XiliaceEe,'^ in which each colored 
plate is accompanied by an uncolored tissue-proof; a set of 
exquisite heath illustrations contained in the "Botanical 
Cabinet," and a folio on Central American orchids, by 
Baterman. 

Henry Shaw's pur- 
pose in establishing 
the garden was to pro- 
vide an ol)ject-lesson 
in beauty, so as to en- 
courage the love and 
cultivation of flowers, 
promote technical in- 
struction, and provide 
for research. TJirough 
the School of Botan}-, 




Orchid House 
-Missouri Botanical Garden 



endowed in Washinir- 



86 



St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 




Museum Building 
-Missouri Botanical Garden 



ton University before his 
death, and recently aug- 
mented by his Trustees, 
and by means of a com- 
prehensive course in 
gardening, the founder's 
purpose is served. 

The distinctly educa- 
tional features have re- 
sulted in training a large 
n u m b e r of excellent 
gardeners, park superin- 
tendents, landscape architects and teachers; and through 
the School of Botany, instruction on this subject, 
for which time could be found by undergraduates, has 
been given, and a number of active workers in this field 
have secured graduate training and earned the degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy. Quite recently, through addition 
to the buildings in the Garden, the laboratory facilities of 
the School of Botany have been largely increased, so that 
provision has now been made for carrying on all of its 
graduate work at the Garden, the undergraduate work only 
being done at Washington University. Important addi- 
tions have been made to the teaching and investigating 
staff of the school. 

The most interest- 

ing buildings are : the 
plant houses, for the 
most part of old and 
simple design, though 
a large range of mod- 
ern conservatories is 
planned for early con- 
struction; the country 

, (• TT cii ' Henry Shaw's Town House 

home of Henry bhaw, —Missouri Botanical Garden 




The Parks and Public Gardens. 87 

built in 1841), which, adjoining a grove of native sassafras, 
caused liim to apply the name of "Tower Grove" to his 
villa; a museum erected in 1859, which is now 
used for housing an overllow from the library; and his 
town house, built in 1853, and as already described, re- 
moved and reconstructed in the garden something over 
nineteen years ago. From this city home, in which the 
offices of the garden are now located, has been derived the 
architectural key for the future quadrangle of library, 
herbarium, laboratory and museum buildings, the first 
portion of which is now erected, joining at the south the 
old town house, in which the original mantels, etc., con- 
stitute interesting souvenirs of its former use. 

In the garden is a mausoleum, in which the sarcophagus 
of Henry Shaw is surmounted by a marble figure executed 
by Von Mueller, which is probably the most perfect por- 
trait of him in existence. 

If the visitor's mind, after examining this rare col- 
lection of plants, is in a state of unreceptiveness, there are 
other gardens, which, while not built on scientific lines, 
are just the sort he might be in need of to restore his men- 
tal equilibrium. I am now speaking of those summer 
gardens whose attractions consist of fairly good vaudeville 
or comic opera, with now and then a mid-summer attempt 
at the production of serious plays, and a bewildering num- 
l)er of all sorts and conditions of scenic railway to 
deprive the unwary of his breath, if not of all his senses, 
at least temporarily. St. Louis always having enjoyed the 
doubtful distinction of being a "summer town," these 
places of amusement are well patronized and even on un- 
comfortably cool nights— and there are a few even in St. 
Louis — the citizens think it their duty to take a street car 
ride, with one of the summer gardens as their ultimate 
goal. There is nothing deprecatory about this; in fact, 
it should come in for praise, since it adds to the gaiety of 
the city and makes some sultry nights less unbearable. 



St. Louis: Its Histoky and Ideals. 




Tne Villa — Delmar Garden 



There are three gar- 
dens which may be 
visited with profit, if, as 
we said before, the vis- 
itor is in need of relax- 
ation. Tliese are Del- 
mar Garden, Suburban 
Garden and Forest Park 
Highlands. The first is 
reached Ij}' taking an Olive Street car marked ^'Delmar,^' 
which bears this talisman because, although it starts on 
Olive Street, it leaves that street at Taylor Avenue and 
makes its final run on Delmar Avenue. And here it would 
be well to call the stranger's attention to some of the 
eccentricities of the St. Louis street car system. For in- 
stance, the car marked "Page," Avhich runs out Washington 
Avenue, docs not reach Page Avenue until a circuitous trip 
through a number of streets is made; the sign ''Mary- 
land" on an Olive Street car refers to Maryland Avenue and 
not to a suburb, and really means that at a certain stage of 
the trip the car swerves into Maryland Avenue for a dis- 
tance of some seven city 1)locks. I am citing only these 
two instances so as to warn the stranger not to depend alto- 
gether on his superior judgment, unsupported by much in- 
formation from the seasoned traveler on street cars, when 
he wishes to ride in a certain direction. To be convinced 
of the faultiness of his 
judgment, all that is 
necessary is one exjieri- 
ence, covering the space 
of only a few minutes, at 
the corner of Broadwa\- 
and Washington Avenue, 
which will enlighten him 
better than any printed 
instructions possibly can. 




Suburban Garden 



which make one's eyes bulge and 
one's breath short, is quite popii 



The Parks and Public Gardens. 89 

The Suburban Garden lies in the northwestern part of 
tbe city and any car marked ''Sul3ur])an I^irk" going west 
will take the visitor there. This garden, while it has not 
many novel contrivances to en- 
tertain the visitor in tlie wav y^ 
of swiftly-moving inventions -J^ ^^k .^ 

lar witli a large number of peo- -■■■ ,m,.:U/- ' 

pie, for it caters to the class . 

who enjoy serious drama even in Tokio Gateway- 

SUnmicr. Forest Park Highlands 

Forest Park liiglihinds is situated south of Forest 
Park, and is reached by taking a soutlibound "Taylor"' car 
on Euclid Avenue. Eecently, this summer garden has been 
thoroughly overhauled, and the rumors whicli have already 
readied the interested, point to the fact that the new scenic 
railway called the "Mountain Eide'^ is so far in advance 
of what has previously ])een done in tliis special line of 
entertainment that the truly marvelous has at last been 
reached. Instead of comic opera, as obtains at Dclmar 
Garden, or a woeful drama, which is the customary pro- 
gram at the Suburban, this garden is given up entirely to 
vaudeville; ca form of amusement, I take it, that may' not 
be objectionable even to him whose mind has l)een steeped 
unremittingly in the science of uiedicine. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ART MUSEUM AND THE ART SCHOOLS. 

The Social Mission of Art — Wayman Crow — The Old Mu- 
seum of Fine Ai'ts — The Art Museum in Forest Park — 
The Equestrian Statue of St. Louis — Central Sculpture 
Hall — ^Donoghue's "Young Sophocles" — • Donoghue — How 
to Visit an Art Gallery With the Best Results — Lef ebvre's 
"La Cigale" ■ — Schultzberg's "Lilacs" — Zorn's "Head of 
a Woman" — Sorolla-Y-Bastida's "Another Marguerite" — 
Julian Story's "An Incident of the French Revolution" — 
"Nouvelle Biographie Generale" versus Lamartine — Loir's 
"The End of Autumn" — Fritz Uhde's "A Sewing Bee in 
Holland" — Jules Dupre's "In Pasture" — Dore's "Loch 
Lomond" — Puvis de Chavannes's "Charity" — Transient 
Exhibitions and Their Value — The Street Cars and the 
Art Museum — The School of Fine Arts — Chinese Panels 
and American Vandals — University City — The Academy 

of Fine Arts and its Correspondence Students The 

Ceramic Museum — Artists' Guild — The Rathskeller and 
the American Pronunciation of the Word — The Burns 
Collection — Bums's Mother. 

OF ART, as it exists to-day in our leading cities, 
much has been written. But one important phase 
of the matter has been overlooked, and that is its 
social mission, by which is meant its bearing on modern 
education. The beginnings of this social mission are al- 
ways interesting to study, for they are generally the out- 
come of one man's thinlving, and not the combined thought 
of the greater part of a community. The latter are quite 
content to go along as usual, though occasionally there may 
be faint indications of dissatisfaction with a strictly utili- 
tarian existence. This unrest, which is nothing but an 
aspiration towards a social factor, without which life is in- 



The Akt Museum and tiik Art Schools. 



complete, is not understood until tlio "one man;'' mentioned 
before, grasps the importance ot tlie situation and advances 
enough money to build an Art Museum. Then, only, are 
opportunities granted the untrained eyes of the people to 
receive the beneficent lesson which was lacking in their 
luuudrum existence. And, as regards St. Louis, this was 
brought about by the gift of the late Wayman Crow of the 
original part of the old Museum and Memorial Hall at 
the northeast corner of Nineteenth and Locust Streets. 

All this took place as far back as the early eighties, 
and though the building was not even for that time a large 
one, it answered the purpose very well. But more than 
this, it was an artistic structure of rough stone and carried 
the message to all passers-by, who casually looked at it, 
that here was something that had been set apart in the 
interests of an art that had hitherto been homeless. When 
the building was erected. Locust Street still bore enough 
vestiges of its former pre-eminence as a residential street — 
it was known then as 
Lucas Place — to make 
a fitting setting for 
the new building; but 
to-day the street and 
its immediate vicinity 
arc undergoing those 
deplorable changes, 
which always take 
place prior to the com- 
plete invasion of busi- 
ness. The busts of 
Phidias, Michelangelo and Eaphael, now that the building 
is deserted save for occasional lectures in Memorial Hall, 
attest to one thing only — namely, that grime and smoke 
are no respecters of the counterfeits of celebrated artists. 




Museum of Fine Arts 



92 



St. Loujs : Its Histoijy and Ideals. 



The incentive which issued from "Waynian Crow's gift 
was a healthy one, for after his death in 1886, it inspired 
others to interest themselves in art, with results that are 
not unappreciated to-day. Up to the time of the Museum^s 
removal to its present quarters in Forest Park, its growth, 





Art Museum — Forest Park 

both as regards increase in the number of pictures and the 
necessary prestige to rivet attention upon it from possible 
benefactors, was commendable. The apogee of its worth 
and value to the community, however, was not reached 
until after the close of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 
when the Art Palace — the part that had been built of 
durable material — was turned over to the IMuseum of Fine 
Arts for their future home. This was not in the nature of 
a gift from the Directors of the Exposition, but as compen- 
sation to Washington ITnivcrsity — the Museum of Fine 
Arts had from its inception been under the aegis of this 
institution — for the loan of several of the University build- 
ings during the Exposition. Thus we see by what devious 
ways a child, that has to be as carefully nurtured as does 
art in our American cities, arrived in St. Louis at a lusty 
growth that cannot be other than the sort that is 
adamantine enough — at least for an encouraging number 
of decades — to ward off those attacks of time, which ai'c 
only too evident in our public buildings when fashion 



'I'm-: Airr ]\frsEl^^[ and 'imk Airr Schools. 



93 



decrees tluit a. certain street sIkuiM Itc (IcsitIimI, l)(,'caiise of 
its proximity to th(^ l)iisiness section, and the eNcr-lisieiiini;- 
smoke wings its way at once to the scene of partial desohi- 
tion, just to show its democratic approval of the mandate. 
(Some criticism has been visited on the location of the new 
Art Mnseum Budding, on account of its distance from the 
supposedly accommodating electric cars, but this is another 
street car story, as Eudyard Kipling might have said.) 

The building is classic in style, and the material used 
has the attractiveness that is always called forth 1)y a 
combination of gray limestone and Eoman brick. The 
frontage covers three hundred and fifty feet, and the 
depth of one hundred aiul fifty-six feet is ample enougli to 




Main Entrance, Art Museum — Forest Park 

give the building the necessary aspect of solidity. There 
are six symbolic figures over the north entrance, illustrative 
of six epoch-making periods in tlie history of art, and 
twenty medallions, by Brewster and riccirilli, in the frieze. 
The syml)olic figures by Yaegers, Elwell, Gelert, Linder, 



i)4 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

Teftt^ and Hanann are creditable productions, and are 
illuminating lessons^ in so far as they teach that statues 
used for decorative purposes on buildings need not always 
be monstrosities. To add to the satisfying exterior of this 
building, good judgment was exercised when the model 
was selected for the equestrian statue of the French king 
after whom the city St. Louis was named, and which 
stands near enough to the Art Museum, either to detract 
from its worth as the embodiment of excellent architectural 
ideas, or enhance the beauty of its lines and its decidedly 
classical mood. While the horse is a bit wooden, the 
figure astride it is well conceived; hence, Charles Henry 
Niehaus, the modeler, may congratulate himself on the 
results of his labors. Most equestrian statues, especially 
when the horse is in motion, are such nondescript affairs 
that considerable praise should be meted out to this one, 
even though it has not enough of the sweep and freedom of 
movement to allow us, in our most generous moments, to 
compare it, even distantly, with those masterpieces in 
sculptural equestrianism — Coustou's "Horses of Marly'^ in 
Paris, and Falconet's "Peter the Great'' in St. Petersburg. 

Within, the building makes an impression on one that 
can come only from vast dimensions. The central nave, 
known as the Central Sculpture Hall, is one hundred and 
fifty feet in length and its width and height are com- 
mensurate with its great length. Although the propor- 
tions are so unusual that the eye wanders at first aim- 
lessly through the vast area, it soon fastens on the walls 
and notes their simplicity and their unbroken color scheme, 
due to a profusion of Roman brick. 

The Central Sculpture Hall has much to attract the 
visitor. Whatever his predilections may be in the matter 
of American sculpture, there is enough here to hold his 
attention for hours. "\Aniile the originals are not in such 
profusion that comment is necessary, the artists' models 



The Art Museum and the Art Schools. 95 

arc excellently done, and for educative purposes they 
answer just as well as would the others. And a goodly 
company is here: Saint-Gaudens, French, McXeil, Bart- 
lett, Adams, Ward and others: men who have not heen 
remiss in placing American sculpture on cjuite an exalted 
plane. When we recall what a lowly handmaid, as com- 
pared with painting, this phase of American art was only 
a few years ago, we cannot but be moved to a feeling that 
has the buoyancy which is born of high hopes. 

Now, though it is an indisputable fact that every 
frequenter of an art gallery has his favorite picture or 
statue, let me imagine, without any reflection on the 
visitor's knowledge of art in its best estate, that, in all his 
art roamings, he has not seen Donoghue's "Young 
Sophocles/' wdiich is highly probable, since this gifted 
sculptor modeled this subject only twice. Would his trained 
or untrained eye note at once the perfection of the 
anatomical lines, the unusual grace of the poise, the intel- 
lectual factor in Greek art wiiich has always raised it im- 
measurably above all other art, and the sweep of the right 
hand as it touches the lyre? I think it would, for the 
reason that repeated visits are not necessary to appreciate 
what is out of the ordinary in any work of art, since it is 
only the commonplace that exacts prolonged thinking and 
deep cogitation so that some measure of justness may be 
granted the painstaking artist. Donoghue, had he lived, 
would not have been without honor even in this country 
with its faddy connoisseurs so keen on things European, but 
he went the w\ny of so many geniuses — mental eclipse and 
early death. 

Before leaving the Sculpture Hall, I Avould call the 
visitor's attention to McNeil's "Sun Voav,'' French's 
"Death and the Sculptor,'' Saint-Gaudens' "Puritan," 
Adams' "Channing," Bartlett's "General Warren," Wein- 
mann's seated "Lincoln," his World's Fair group, "Tlie 



96 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

Passing of the Red Man/' and his "Sailors' and Soldiers' 
Monument/' which occupies the center of the Hall; Carl 
Bitter's Exposition piece, "Signing the Treaty/' Stirling 
Calder's "Celtic Cross," Albert Lopez's "Sin/' and John 
Boyle's "Stone Age." With the mention of these con- 
temporary American artists, the list is by no means ex- 
hausted: my intention having been merely to indicate to 
the visitor that the Sculpture Hall is graced with enough 
statuary to lure him into lengthy contemplation of what is 
really good and instructive art. 

Jerome K. Jerome, in one of his best books, the title 
of which has escaped me, says that if you want to retain 
the friendship of a very dear friend, do not travel with 
him, for there is bound to come a time when a disagree- 
ment will occur. And with this thought in mind, I would 
say to the visitor of the galleries containing the paintings 
(pieces of statuary somehow seldom cause discussions) : 
Let your untrained eye wander over their contents un- 
assisted by the superior person, who is as ready to repri- 
mand as to instruct. By doing this you will achieve much 
more, for when you consider the matter of art closely, 
the picture that appeals to you most is the one whereby 
you derive the best instruction (taking for granted you are 
not a supercilious dabbler in art topics). And, further- 
more, your mental placidity will be such that receptive- 
ness will aid you in finding out most, if not all, of the 
salient points of a picture. 

Now though I am in full agreement with what I have 
just written, my position as writer of this book justifies, 
to some extent, my obtruding myself on your notice, if only 
to call your attention to some of the paintings which liave 
moved me to enthusiasm. In Gallery II, for instance, is 
Lefebvre's well-known "La Cigale," which shows what 
masters the French are in the matter of the nude in art; 
Schultzberg's "Lilacs," a mass of lilacs with no figure to 



The Art Museum and the Art Schools. 97 

disturb the general elfect: only simplicity and color, and, 
best of all, truth to nature ; and Zorn's "Head of a Woman,'^ 
illustrating the peculiarities of this Swedish artist's work- 
manship: his dabs of red against a ghastly white back- 
ground: rather startling and not at all to one's taste at 
close range, but how immensely effective from a distance ! 

But it is in Gallery XXXII that the visitor ought to 
pause longest, not so much on account of its size, but on 
account of one picture, which is a masterpiece, if by this 
expression one means the flawless pictorial representation 
of a subject that can be understood by all, since the 
tragedy depicted is almost of daily occurrence, and its 
simplicity is the sort that sends a shaft home even to the 
most obdurate. Reference is made to Sorolla-Y-Bastida's 
"Another Marguerite," which was acquired by the Art 
Museum as far back as 1893, through the kindly offices of 
Mr. Charles Nagel; quite a number of years, to tell the 
truth, before New York "went wild" over this Spanish 
master's art. In fact, the St. Louis Art Museum was the 
first museum in this country to own a Sorolla. But with 
the mention of this canvas in Gallery XXXII, I have 
merely touched upon its excellent contents ; and though the 
other pictures may, in my opinion, be overshadowed by the 
one I have mentioned, they nevertheless have enough merit 
to please all tastes. Students interested in the dramatic 
events which crowded the days of the French Revolution, 
will not neglect Julian Story's stirring "An Incident of 
the French Revolution," in which is told that interesting 
episode in the life of Mile, de Sombreuil w^hich makes a 
living page in Lamartine's "History of the Girondists." 
(The incident depicted by Story, though discounted by 
many authorities, is charged with dramatic possibilities. 
But the version of the episode in the French encyclopedia, 
"Xouvelle Biographic Generale," is less highly colored 
than Lamartine's, and reallv makes the storv out to be the 



98 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

sort of fabrication that seems to follow all heroines of his- 
tory with relentless heels. But, be that as it may, let us 
hope that when this exceedingly distressed young woman 
quaffed the glass filled with blood and wine, as some con- 
tend, the wine was on top and that her heroism was duly 
appreciated before her lips touched the blood ! ) 

For those who are interested in marines, there are in 
this room, two very good specimens: "Twilight/^ by 
Alexander Harrison, and "A Narrow Escape," by Hugo 
Schnars-Alquist. To counteract the sombre impression 
of the latter, it would be well for the visitor to look at the 
painting entitled "The End of Autumn," by Loir, which, 
though judging from its name, should be of darkish tones 
with suggestions of the dreariest season of the year, has 
all the charm that comes from light and that indescribable 
"something" which only French painters of street scenes 
know how to put into the open air. 

In Gallery XVI there are three pictures which indicate, 
at first sight, that they are above the ordinary. Fritz 
Uhde's "A Sewing Bee in Holland" attracts attention on 
account of its truth to domesticity, its transparent light 
effects, its characteristic note of Dutch quietness and 
cleanliness not unlike Avhat the "Little Dutch Masters" 
achieved when they painted Interiors. "In Pasture," by 
Jules Dupre, is a high achievement of an altogether differ- 
ent order and arouses our interest, not only because its 
coloring is rich in full tones, but because of the conten- 
tion between the muscular young woman and the black and 
white cow. Dore's "Loch Lomond," Avhile not the equal of 
his work as an illustrator — who can forget his illustrations 
of "The Raven" and "The Ancient Mariner" ! — is a good 
specimen of landscape painting, with enough of the Dore 
element in it to stamp it with the weirdness of this genius's 
strange individuality. 



The Art Museum and the Art Schools. 99 

Because it is so seldom that one sees a painting by 
Puvis de Chavannes in any of our American museums, I 
would call the visitor's attention to his "Charity/' which 
has all the earmarks of the painter whom Reinach, in his 
book "Apollo/' calls "the greatest decorative painter of the 
nineteenth century." Those visitors who have seen his 
"Sacred Grove'' in the Sorbonne at Paris, will not fail to 
recognize in the painting in the Art Museum, the sym- 
bolism and idealism which have made all his pictures so 
outstanding among the art productions of the last century. 

Besides the permanent collection, of which I have given 
only the bare outlines, the Museum makes a point of having 
each year, a number of transient exhibitions, and these 
are really more educative than any permanent collection 
can be, since they teach the public the various phases of art 
as it exists to-day. In addition to American paintings, 
there have been exemplifications of contemporary art, as 
illustrated by the methods of the Glasgow School of 
Painters, the French Impressionists and the German 
Secessionists. In this way comparisons can be made be- 
tween contemporary American art and the best fruits of 
European art, with results that are beneficial, since only by 
watching and studying the progTess made in Europe, can 
American art ever hope to achieve that distinction which 
it must conserve to set it apart from all other schools of 
art — an Americanism that is foot-loose from academical 
obsessions. 

The Art Museum, as has already been hinted, is not in 
the beaten path of any electric car so that it can be reached 
without a walk of some six city blocks. This is certainly 
a disadvantage that must militate against the attendance, 
since sightseers are not prone to accept inconveniences with 
a good grace. But he who is bent upon seeing in a city 
what is worth seeing, despite any obstacles which the short- 
sightedness of a city's administration may stubbornly re- 



100 



St. Louis : Its History axd Ideals. 




School of Fine Arts 

Eoacl (provided University 



Citv 



fuse to remove, will l)e ]x"st served in the matter of trans- 
portation by taking a Market Street car to Tamm Avenue 
on the south side of the park; a ''McPherson" car to 
DeBaliviere Avenue on the north side, or a ''Chryton'' car 
to Forsyth Avenue on the west side. The "Clayton'' is 

a suburban line, to 
which the ''Dehnar" 
line transfers from 
any point along its 
route. 

After leaving the 
Art ]\[useum, it were 
best to walk through 
Forest Park in a 
northwesterly 
direction to Skinker 
is the visitor's next 
stopping place), take a "Claytoir' car running north and 
then transfer to a westbound "Delmar'^ car. But before 
this is done, I Avould advise the visitor, directly he reaches 
Skinker Eoad, to turn into the red brick building which 
faces the street. This is the School of Fine Arts, and its 
further distinction is that during the Louisiana Purchase 
Exposition it was the British Pavilion. The architectural 
lines are Wren's, and the garden at the time of the Expo- 
sition was a splendid expression of English horticultural 
ideas; but this it is no longer, having passed through all 
the stages of neglect until at present it bears no Te- 
semblance whatever to its former beautiful state. One of 
the rooms, which w^as the banquet hall during the Expo- 
sition days, is now occupied by the antique drawing class. 
In the inner court of the pavilion, four rooms have been 
added, and in one of these is the library, the decorations of 
which were brought in their entirety from the old Museum 
at the corner of Nineteenth and Locust Streets. These 



The Akt ^Fuseuii and the Art Schools. 101 

decorations rank among the best cNaiiiples oi* l^'rencli (Jothir 
in this country. The ottice is, beyond a doubt, the room 
that is the most artistic in the entire Iniikling. Here may 
be seen on the walls the exquisitely carved panels which 
graced the walls of the Chinese pavilion during the Ex- 
position, and which w^ere presented to Mr. David E. Francis 
by the Chinese Government w.hen the Exposition closed. 
Their value is inestimable from an artistic point of view, 
since they are the means of opening up before us a phase 
of Chinese art that is not any too well known in this 
country. The woods are rose, teak and camphor, and the 
legendary history of China is unfolded before us by means 
of carvings which make us wonder at the patience of the 
Chinese and the cunning of their long tapering fingers. 
The vandals, who thought inore of their pocket-knives than 
of art during the Exposition, have left their ineffaceahle 
marks here and there, but even so no visitor should fail to 
examine these wonderful panels. 

University City is situated just outside St. Louis, and 
its prosperity, as a focal point for a numl)er of institu- 




University City 

tions, attests to the executive ability of its creator, Mr. E. 
G-. Lewis. The buildings which at i^resent embellish tliis 
very attractive spot are the Woman's National Daily Build- 
ing, the Executive Building, and the Academy of Fine 
Arts, besides a number of residences which are worthy of 



102 



St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 




Academy of Fine Arts 
— University City 



the setting they receive in the park-like laying-out of the 
grounds. 

The Academy of Fine Arts has recently been com- 
pleted and its architecture is a good illustration of the 
Italian Eenaissance. The interesting rooms to visit are 

the Art Gallery and the 
Ceramic Museum, the 
ceramics of which were 
bought by Mr. Lewis 
from M. Taxile Doat, 
who is one of the in- 
structors; but what 
will interest the visitor 
more than anything 
else, in the basement is 
a real potter and his clay, whose dexterity in fashion- 
ing vases is an illuminating lesson that cannot soon be 
forgotten. The school has correspondence students and 
"advanced personal attendance students/' and though in 
certain quarters there may be adverse criticism of teaching 
by correspondence, the photographs, models, and facsimile 
drawings are adequate to convey to the student an excel- 
lent idea of the possibilities of art. Of course, the idea of 
teaching art by correspondence is not in consonance with 
purely academical canons, but then in our strivings to rid 
ourselves of these incubi, are we not justified in going to 
any lengths ? 

The St. Louis Artists' Guild occupies a unique build- 
ing on Union Boulevard, not far from Kensington Avenue. 
To reach this building most conveniently, from the busi- 
ness section, the visitor is advised to take a westbound 
Olive Street car, marked "Delmar,'' to Union Boulevard, 
whence a walk of a block and a half will bring him in front 
of the Guild. While the size of the structure is far from 
imposing, it has the attractiveness that comes from artistry 



The Art Museum and the Art Schools. 103 

expressed in coloring and exceptionally good lines. In 
short, the exterior prepossesses one for the building even be- 
fore the interior is seen, and even its purpose is guessed at, 
though the guess may be wide of the mark. One of the 
most interesting rooms is the "Kathskeller" in the base- 
ment, the appointed place of many highly interesting 
Bohemian suppers that are attended by the active and 
associate members of the organization. (Why has no 
ingenious person ever devised another name for this sort 
of room, so as to rid us of the pronunciation we daily hear, 
and which our Americanism insists upon pronouncing as if 
it were a cellar specially dedicated to Eats!) 

The active members are painters, sculptors, musicians, 
architects, and writers, while the associate members are 
patrons of art, Americanized Maecenases who are quite in 




Artists' Guild 

sympathy with our fledging Horaces and Vergils and our 
sculptors with Phidian aspirations. 

The room of rooms in the Guild is the one that has tlie 
highly-prized Burns collection, which Mr. W. Iv. Bixby 
donated to the club. The pieces were brought from Burns's 



104 St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 

home; lience their authenticity cannot be questioned. In 
this vastly interesting room are a grandfather's clocks a 
milking-stool, a spinning-wheel, a cupboard, an old dresser, 
some chairs and tables, two candle-holders, and, best of all, 
manuscripts and pictures. The Burns cult, as evidenced 
here, is worthy of the highest praise, since it shows a desire 
on the part of a most generous benefactor to burn enough 
posthumous incense before an honored shrine, so that some 
amends may be eifected to ameliorate the inexcusable neg- 
lect of the poet during his life. Would Burns's mother, 
we wonder, could she see this American adoration of her 
gifted son after all these years, burst forth again with her 
well-known plaint, which was aroused by seeing his hand- 
some headstone: "Bobby, you asked for bread and they 
gave you a stone" (or room, as it would be in this case) ? 



CHAPTER V. 

MEDICAL SCHOOLS^ HOSPITALS AND CPIARITABLE 
INSTITUTIONS. 

Dr. Andre Conde's Income From His Practice — Dr. Jean 
Valleau — Dr. Antoine Saugrain's Philanthropy — Dr. Wil- 
liam Carr Lane's Inaugural Address — The Bathing Es- 
tablishment of Mr. J. Sparks & Co. — Medical Department 
of St. Louis University in 1841 — Dr. Joseph Nash Mc- 
Dowell and the Trustees of Kemper College — Dr. Mc- 
Dowell's Characteristics — Dr. William Beaumont — 
Washington University Medical School — Medical Depart- 
ment of St. Louis University — Barnes Medical College — 
St. Luke's Hospital — Jewish Hospital — St. Ann's Ma- 
ternity Hospital and Foundling Asylum — Missouri Bap- 
tist Sanitarium — Evangelical Deaconess Hospital — Mul- 
lanphy Hospital — Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hos- 
pital — Maternity Hospital — St. John's Hospital — Frisco 
Hospital — St. Vincent's Institution for the Insane — St. 
Louis Children's Hospital — -Lutheran Hospital — Alexian 
Brothers' Hospital — Mount St. Rose's Hospital — St. An- 
thony's Hospital — City Hospital — Its Peregrinations — 
Municipal Laboratory of Pathology and Bacteriology — 
St. Louis Training School for Nurses, and the Sairey 
Gamps of a Former Day — Dr. Cornelius Boardman — 
Missouri Pacific Hospital — Josephine Hospital — Be- 
thesda Foundling Home and Incurable Hospital — City 
Sanitarium — House of the Good Shepherd — Home of the 
Friendless — Altenheim — Memorial Home — Missouri 
School for the Blind — Blind Girls' Home — James E. 
Yeatman — Methodist Orphans' Home — 'Jewish Educa- 
tional Alliance — St. Louis Medical Society and What it 
Stands For. 

IF THE trutlif Illness of an anecdote about tlie iirst 
physician who practiced in St. Louis cannot be im- 
pugned^ a congratuhxtory mood shoukl be ours, for 
though conditions at present are not so perfect that some 
adverse criticism woukl be superfluous, they are very much 
improved, indeed. According to the anecdote, when Dr. 



106 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

Andre Auguste Condc died two liuiidred aiid thirty-two 
peo|)le owed him for services rendered, and while admit- 
ting that even nowadays there may be isolated cases of 
like appreciation, it must not be forgotten that the num- 
ber of Dr. Conde^s debtors represented nearly all the people 
in St. Louis and Cahokia for the ten years that he had 
engaged in the practice of medicine. Every physician has 
been heard to complain about the ingratitude of patients — 
in fact, has enough material on hand to write a number of 
pessimistic essays, but would any of them have the illumi- 
nating lessons on the rewards of medicine w^hich would be 
contained in Dr. Conde's essay, were his shade willing to 
record in writing his own experiences? I doubt it. 

But Dr. Conde's experiences of some one hundred and 
forty-six years ago, while unique and perhaps eloquent of 
the times, belong to the dusty records of a period in the 
history of St. Louis that is already half-forgotten, and of 
interest only to the antiquarian. With this thought in 
mind, the ^^resent historian will not linger long around 
those early days when Dr. Jean Baptiste Yalleau and Dr. 
Antoine Francois Saugrain flourished, nor make mention in 
detail of their rather prosaic experiences ; though it would 
not be amiss to record that when the former died his estate 
consisted of such valuable possessions as a box of playing 
cards containing a gross of packs, and that the latter, on 
account of the first case of smallpox in St. Louis, started 
a campaign in favor of vaccination. In fact, Dr. Sau- 
gi'ain^s philanthropy went to great lengths, for not only 
did he inform other "physicians and interested persons''' 
that he would furnish them, on application, with "vaccine 
infection,^' but had inserted in the Gazette that "persons 
in indigent circumstance, paupers and Indians, will be 
vaccinated and attended gratis." 

In 1823, though St. Louis had emerged, to some extent, 
from those narrow provincial ideas which are supposed by 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 107 

us to belong exclusively to a former Sige, the sanitary con- 
dition of the city was far removed from what it should 
have been, if the heated words, which were the salient 
feature of the inaugnral address of St. Louis's first Mayor, 
Dr. William Carr Lane, were in the service of truth. His 
peroration runs thus : 

"Health is a primary object, and there is much more 
danger of disease originating at home than of its seeds 
coming from the body of citizens, with ample powers to 
search out and remove nuisances, and to do whatever else 
may conduce to general health. This place has, of late, 
acquired a character for unhealthfulness which it did not 
formerly bear and does not deserve. I am credibly in- 
formed that it is not many years since a fever of high 
grade was rarely, if ever, seen. To what is the distressing 
change attributable? May we not say principally to the 
insufficiency of our police regulations ? What is the pres- 
ent condition of yards, drains, etc. ? May we not dread 
the festering heat of next summer ?" 

But his ringing words, we take it, must have sent 
many a shaft home, for an historian of recent times, with- 
out the usual quota of humor which a kindly criticism has 
bestowed on all mankind, adds that sanitary matters were 
really much improved in 1829, for the Gazette announced 
that the "new bathing establishment of Mr. J. S]iarks & Co. 
has about thirty-five visitors, and of that number not one 
has experienced an hour's sickness since the bathing com- 
menced. We should, for the benefit of the city, be glad 
there were more encouragement ; and as tlie season is partly 
over, tickets have been reduced to one dollar the season." 

Historical records invariably have the exasperating fea- 
ture of stopping just when our interest is aroused, and in 
tins instance, on account of the absence of luore extensive 
data, we are still at sea as to whether or not the unusual 
inducement in the matter of price was a sufficient lure to 
inveigle many others into buying season tickets. 



108 St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 

Sanitation and the vicissitudes of ph^^sicians, either in 
new or old settlements, are even nowadays as much dis- 
cussed as formerly; hence, a lukewarmness on the part of 
the writer should not be construed by the reader as an 
indication that he is completely indifferent to these peren- 









Medical Department of St. Louis University — 1841 

nially interesting subjects. But what seems of much 
greater importance, and should be recorded without hesi- 
tancy, is the historical moment in the medical history of 
St. Louis when the first medical school was organized. 

In 1836 a movement was set on foot, by the Trustees of 
St. Louis University, which had for its ol:)ject the for- 
mation of a medical school; but though tlio faculty was 
almost at once selected, and was composed of a number of 
well-known physicians, and a prospectus was issued each 
year, no active work was done, in the way of teaching, 
until 1841. In the meantime another medical school was 
started by Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell and the Trustees 
of Kemper College, and being fortunate enough to have 
so energetic a man as Dr. 3IcD(i\vell at its liead, its activi- 
ties began at once. Thus St. Louis had two medical 
schools and the sort of rivalry that always ol)tains when 
factional institutions are not above petty jealousies. 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 109 

Dr. McDowell, especially, had all the interests of his 
college at heart, and the fact that his school had inaugu- 
rated a lecture course a twelve-month before the Medical 
Department of St. Louis University, was sufficient to 
throw him into ecstacies of delight every time he thought 
of it. Dr. McDowell was quite imusual in many ways; he 
was not a genius by any means, but he knew the full value 
of audacity and brusqueness. His eccentricities were many ; 
his hatreds too numerous to count; but he was out of the 
ordinary, and the people of his day, unaccustomed to any- 
thing that was not ordinary, made much of him. A differ- 
ent man of those early days was Dr. William Beaumont, 
and though the reminiscences about liim, which have come 
down to us, are commonplace enough, he really did work 
which later generations could appreciate. Anybody who 
would like to note tlie difference between these two men, 
need delve no deeper into the matter than compare 
McDowelFs oration, delivered at the laying of the corner- 
stone of the edifice of tlie Medical Department of Kemper 
College, with the gentle Beaumont's scientific work, ^'Physi- 
ology of Digestion and Experiments on the Gastric Juice.^^ 
McDowelFs effort is the sort that is turgid with rodomon- 
tade and bombast; peroration follows peroration so fast 
that the reader longs for many moments of plain, un- 
adorned English. But he held his hearers spellbound, and 
no doubt they voted him an extraordinary man; but what 
did these same people think of Beaumont, of the scientist 
whom Professor William Osier, in his essay, ^'A Backwood 
Physiologist," characterizes as the man who "anticipated 
some of the most recent studies in the physiology of di- 
gestion?" No doubt their opinion did small credit to their 
judgment. 

Coming down to modern times St. Louis lias three 
medical schools which are worthy of mention. Two of 
these are under the aegis of universities; the tliird has 
not, as yet, arrived at this distinction. 



110 



St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 




Washington University- 
Medical School 



The Washington Universit}^ Medical School was estab- 
lished under an ordinance enacted in 1891, the St. Louis 
Medical College, founded in 1841, becoming the Washing- 
ton University Medical School. In 1899 the Missouri 
Medical College, founded in 1840, was merged with the 

Washington Univer- 
sity Medical School. 
The Medical School 
occupies two build- 
ings, one a hospital, 
the other a la])oratory 
building, in which the 
teaching work of the 
school is conducted. 
A large free dispen- 
sary is in each build- 
ing. It has exclusive 
use of the clinical 
privileges of three large hospitals within easy reach of the 
school buildings. As regards clinical instruction in city 
institutions, it enjoys equal privileges with other schools. 
The laboratory building is on Locust Street, between 
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets. In it are most of the 
laboratories and the OTallon Dispensary. Rooms for lec- 
tures and recitations are provided to facilitate didactic 
instruction and instruction in connection with laboratory 
work. The departments of medicine, pathology, bacteri- 
ology, chemistry, anatomy, physiology and pharmacology 
have rooms equipped for research. 

The laboratory building contains, in addition to the 
offices of the Dean and the Eegistrar, six lecture-rooms; 
two large laboratories for elementar}^, organic and physio- 
logical chemistry; practical anatomy rooms for dissection 
and for preparation of material ; a museum of normal ana- 
tomical specimens; laboratories for histology, embryolog}^ 



Medical Schools^ Hospitals^ Institutions. Ill 

and organology; a working museum of pathological anat- 
omy; a pathological and bacteriological laboratory; physi- 
ological and pharmacological laboratories; library and 
reading rooms^, and a fully organized clinical department. 
The several laboratory departments are provided with in- 
struments of precision and with apparatus for demonstra- 
tions and for research. 

The Washington University Hospital is under the di- 
rection of the Executive Committee of the Medical School. 
Members of the faculty, and their assistants, constitute its 
staff. Its location, in the heart of the city, near the corner 
of Jefferson and Lucas Avenues, is favorable for a large 
dispensary service, and a constant supply of cases of acute 
and chronic diseases is afforded for clinical teaching. 

The Hospital was opened in January, 1905. In its 
construction every effort was made to adapt it for teach- 
ing, and it has afforded excellent opportunities for bedside 
and clinical instruction. The Hospital contains one 
hundred loeds, laboratories, class rooms, operating rooms, 
private rooms, diet kitchens, and many other facilities 
essential to a modern teaching hospital. From January 
1, 1908, to January 1, 1909, 974 patients have been cared 
for. With the inclusion of the dispensary and lying-in 
departments there have been 37,231 visits for treatment 
during the past year. 

Eecently the Board of Directors of Washington Uni- 
versity have outlined a plan to reorganize the Medical De- 
partment. With this object in view, steps have already 
been taken towards its realization, and a tract of land, at 
the east end of Forest Park, on Kingshighway, between 
McKinley and Arco Avenues, has been secured, upon which 
the hospitals and college buildings will be erected. In 
addition to the general hospital and the children's hos- 
pital, there will be laboratory buildings, clinical buildings 
with dispensary facilities, and later on a maternity hos- 



112 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

23ital. AM the hospitals will l)e used for teaching purposes, 
the idea heing to follow the lines laid down by that almost 
ideal j)lace for merlical instruction — the Johns Hopkins 
University. 

x\ccording to the published 
^^A promises a great deal of new life 

^^BK^Kk ^^'^^^ ^® injected into the old staff 

^^M^M^H^Uk^ of teachers by having such men 
■^HR^|^^^H| as Dr. George Dock, of Tulane 
1^1^;^. 'zMKKKm University; Dr. John Howland, 
Medical Departmeiit, St. of the University and Belle vue 

(Marion ^Sims-^Beaumont Hospital Medical College ; Dr. Eu- 
coiiege of Medicine) ^^^^ ^ q^-^^ ^^ ^^^ Eockefeller 

Institute of Medical Eesearch; and Dr. Joseph Erlanger, 
of the University of Wisconsin, on the bead-roll of in- 
structors; and if all promises are kept, and there seems 
to be no reason why they should not, since a number of 
benefactors have been forthcoming with enough money to 
further the plans, St. Louis will at last be in possession 
of a medical school tliat will invite only the friendliest 
criticism. 

The Medical Department of the St. Louis University 
is situated at the southeast corner of Grand Avenue and 
Caroline Streets. The building, a substantial one for 
school purposes, is still known as the ]\Iarion Sims-Beau- 
mont College of Medicine, on account of the fact of its 
having been evolved out of the union of the now defunct 
Beaumont Medical College and the Marion Sims Medical 
College, though officially it is the Medical Department of 
the St. Louis University. The members of the faculty are 
imbued wdth the right idea as to what the status of a med- 
ical school, that is "protected" by a university, should be ; 
and though this protection is a matter of recent years, the 
fruits thereof have already made a good showing. The 
hospitals controlled by the school, or by members of the 



Medical Scttools, Hospitals. Tnstituttoxs. 113 

faculty^ are: Relx'kah Hospital, St. Marv's Infirmary, St. 
John's Hospital, Mt. St. Hoso's Hospital, und St. Ann's 
Lying-in Infirmary. 

The Barnes Medical College is housed in a five-storied 
building of ample proportions at the northeast corner of 
Lawton and Garrison Avenues. While not a "university 
medical college/^ its standing is good: the entrance re- 
quirements and the four years' course of study being 
stringent enough to abet what all medical schools nowa- 
days should be striving for — a higher standard of medical 
education. The Centenary Hospital, which adjoins the 
school, furnishes clinical instruction to the students, and 
in this respect is an excellent adjunct. It has accommo- 
dations for about one hundred patients. 




Barnes Medical College 

The hospitals of St. Louis, while not the equal in size 
of some of the larger hospitals throughout the country, are 
not without distinction in that their management, whether 
medical or la\^, is informed witli the quota of modernity 
necessary to the proper conduct of a hospital to-day. As 
they are scattered over a large area of the city, it would 



114 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

be impossible even for the most patient guide or the most 
docile visitor, to ride from one to the other in the space 
of a few hours, without experiencing the mental fatigue 
which is so decidedly subversive of one's well-being. To 
simplify matters, it has occurred to the writer that it would 




St. Luke's Hospital 

be best first to direct the interested medical reader to those 
hospitals in the West End, which would be worth while 
his attention. 

St. Luke's Hospital stands in grounds which give it the 
setting that all modern hospitals should have, if any regard 
is paid to the esthetic sense as evidenced in gardens tliat 
are not the usual "front yards." The building itself is 
three stories high, and shows in all its lines that the 
architect was not a mere builder who hurriedly drew his 
plans. Although situated on Delmar and Belt Avenues, 
some fifty-five blocks from the business center of the 
city, its location is ideal, in so far as it is in a part of the 
city that is wholly given, up to residences which are, for 
the most part, in "Places" or on wide streets that always 
lend spaciousness to the grounds surrounding houses. 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 115 

The first floor of the Administration building contains 
a commodious lobby, Directors' room, general office, Super- 
intendent's office, visitors' parlor, pharmacy and Chapel. 
The first fioor of the adjoining pavilions, one on the east 
and another on the west, contains two examining rooms, 
two refectories, one male surgical ward with solarium, one 
male medical ward, one female surgical ward with sola- 
rium, one female medical ward, and a full complement of 
nurses' rooms, ward kitchens or service rooms, bath rooms, 
lavatories, linen rooms, etc. 

The second floors of the Administration building, and 
east and west pavilions, contain private rooms only, with 
nurses' rooms, diet kitchens or service rooms, bath rooms, 
lavatories, linen rooms, etc. 

The third floors of the Administration building and 
east pavilion contain private rooms only, with nurses' 
rooms, diet kitchens or service rooms, bath rooms, lava- 
tories, linen rooms, etc. The east pavilion of this floor 
contains the children's ward, with nurses' rooms, lavatory, 
linen room, etc. 

Located at the north end of the east pavilion of the 
third floor are three operating rooms, with connecting 
sterilizing room, planned and equipped to carry out all 
the requirements of antiseptic surgery. Immediately ad- 
joining these rooms are the recovery room, surgeons' retir- 
ing and dressing rooms, with connecting bath room, so 
that the operating surgeon and his assistants are supplied 
with every needed facility for satisfactory work and for 
rest and comfort after the completion of their labors. 

An ambulatory, sixteen feet in width, properly heated, 
lighted and ventilated, extends the entire length of the 
group of buildings on each floor, giving free and unob- 
structed access to all parts of the house, and affording 
ample space for the much needed rest and recreation of 
convalescents and others who may desire to avail them- 
selves of its use for that purpose. 



116 



St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 



Another feature that will be equally appreciated is the 
roof promenade^ located immediately over the Adminis- 
tration buildings access to which is obtained by an electric 
automatic passenger elevator or by the commodious and 
easv stairway leading: from the basement to the roof. Dur- 




Jew: 



Hospital 



ing the summer months^ or when weather conditions per- 
mit, this elevated point affords a most delightful and quiet 
place, overlooking interesting surroundings, for those who 
may desire seclusion or temporary release from the mo- 
notony of room or ward. 

The Jewish Hospital, which is about two blocks east 
of St. Luke's Hospital, is a commodious building that, 
while smaller than St. Luke's, has the same earmarks of 
modernity. Its location is admirable, and its management 
bcs])eaks the unswerving desire to place this institution 
as far above criticism as possible. The operating rooms 
rank with the best in the city. The capacity of the lios- 
pital is one hundred beds. 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. H? 

B}' taking a northbound Union Boulevard car at the 
coriior of Union Boulevard and Delniar Avenue^ and then 
dismounting at the corner of Union Boulevard and Page 
Avenue^ the visitor will see before him a Ijuilding of com- 
manding proportions. This is St. Ann's Maternity 
Hospital and Foundling Asylum^ an institution whicli 
ranks among the l)est charities of the city. The buildings 
which has a frontage of two hundred and seventy-five 
feet, is one of architectural pretensions: and though the 
interior arrangement of a hospital is of greater importance 
than its exterior attractions, the visitor cannot help hut 
note that this structure was not l)uilt for a day. Within, 
the section which will interest the visitor most — the 
nuiternity hospital — will l)e found to fill all the rcrpiire- 




St. Ann's Maternity Hospital and Foundling Asylum 



nients a fastidious taste could demand in the matter of a 
modern lying-in establishment. There are forty private 
rooms and twenty free beds in the hospital. 

Upon leaving St. Anirs, an eastbound electric car on 
Page Avenue will carry the visitor within a short distance 



118 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

of the Missouri Baptist Sanitarium^ provided he gets off 
the car where it turns on Taylor Avenue and walks two 
blocks south. 

The large and commodious brick buildings of the Sani- 
tarium are situated in the center of a tract of oround 




Missouri Baptist Sanitarium 

about three acres in extent^ and are approached by well- 
kept walks and carriage drives. 

The main building is five stories high, including the 
basement. The first three stories above the basement are 
divided into neatly furnished and well-ventilated rooms, 
and are for the accommodation of private patients. The 
patients occupying private rooms have the privilege of 
selecting their own physician, and are accorded all other 
conveniences and attentions they may desire and the best 
service the institution affords. The different floors are all 
complete with bath rooms and toilet rooms, and provided 
with egress to the long covered verandas located on the 
south side of the main building. The halls throughout 
the house are long, wide and well ventilated. 

The rooms on the first and second floors are devoted 
to convalescent and medical cases, while those on the third 
floor are used exclusively for surgical cases. One hundred 
patients can be accommodated in private rooms. 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 119 

If the visitor will take a ^^Suburban'^ car going east, 
stop at Sarah Street, and walk one block north, he will 
reach the Evangelical Deaconess Hospital, at the north- 
west corner of Sarah Street and West Belle Place. The 
modern structure, west of the building at the corner 
which has all the hall-marks of once having been a school- 
house, is at present the hospital proper, the remodeled 
school having been abandoned for hospital purposes on 
completion of the new building. It is three stories in 
height and evidences considerable taste in the style of archi- 
tecture. Within, what strikes the visitor at once, is the ex- 
treme cleanliness of the halls and the rooms: certainly a 
desirable asset in a hospital. The two operating rooms, 
sterilizing room, wash room, and laboratory are on the 
top floor of the west wing, and they are completely shut ojff 
from the rest of the building by a pair of large swinging 
doors. The hospital can accommodate ninety patients. 

Pursuing our route in an eastward direction, we are 
soon on Grand Avenue, whence taking a northbound Grand 
Avenue car, and stopping at Montgomery Street, we reach 




Evangelical Deaconess Hospital 

the St. Louis Mullanphy Hospital, the oldest hospital in 
the city. While it labors under some disadvantages on 
account of its having been built long before the era of all 
those modern ideas which to-day mean so much for a hos- 
pital, this fact does not militate against its excellence as 



120 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

a well-conducted institution and a field for clinical in- 
struction in medicine and surgery. The clinics held here 
are attended by the students of the Medical Department of 
Washington University. 




Mullanphy Hospital 

By retracing our steps along Montgomery Street, we 
are again on Grand Avenue, where a southbound car will 
take us to our next point of destination — Washington Ave- 
nue. Walking one block east on this street our attention 
is immediately arrested by a building which, architectur- 
ally, stands out amongst the somewhat dilapidated homes 
of this once fashionable thoroughfare. This is the new 
Barnard Free Skin and Cancer (St. Louis Free Skin and 
Cancer) Hospital. The exterior of the structure is of 
Georgian design, and though this may not convey much to 
tlie visitor wlio is not versed in architectural lore, there is 
no denying that even the uninitiated must be favorably 
impressed. 

The inspection of the first floor is best made by enter- 
ing the building through the third ''gateway,'' which 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 121 

opens directly from the sidewalk on Theresa Avenue. In 
the ample open space directly in front of this door the out- 
patient clinic and the new patients await their turn, while 
flanking it to the north and south lie the skin examination 
and cancer examination rooms, arranged in suites so that 
five patients may he progressing through each one of them 
at the same time. Special provision has been made in one 
of the north examination rooms for photography, which 
is now so important a branch of hosjutnl records; and in 
the basement is located the dark room, to be used in con- 
nection therewith. After examination, patients admitted 
to the hospital go to the hydrotherapy rooms just below, 
where they are thoroughly cleansed while their clothes are 
sent to the clothes sterilizer in the boiler room. Thence, 
in clean hospital clothes, they ascend by the elevator, either 
to the isolating suite in the north building, or to a room 
or ward in the main buildinc:. 



^ 



'---^ 



-*^***T^ 



>' -=? 







Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital 

Adjacent to the clinic are tlie finely equipped X-ray 
rooms, the drug room and the doctors' lounging room. 
Walking up the stairs one lands inside an attractive metal 
and polished wire-glass stair enclosure, with a sliding 
door of the same material, giving access to the intersection 
of the two main arteries. Turninsr to the south the visitor 



122 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



sees the second floor^ wliicli is typical of the main hospital. 
In the center of the south front is the glass-enclosed so- 
larium, with its attractive bay window, while flanking it 
on both sides, and with the same exposure, are rooms for 




Second Floor Plan 
Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital 

the internes and special cases. To the north of the long 
corridor are the linen and store rooms, the surgical dress- 
ing rooms, and separate bath rooms and lavatories adjoin- 
ing the male and female wards respectively, which term- 
inate the corridor. These spacious wards contain fourteen 
beds each, and are twenty-four feet wide and fiftj^-six feet 
long, with windows facing the four points of the compass. 
For the convenience of attendants stout metal hangers 
have been placed in the ceiling over each bed in the wards 
and rooms so that the patients can be raised with block 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 123 



and tackle, and this device can be used by those patients 
themselves who are physically able to utilize it. 

Adjacent to each bed is an electric light outlet^ to which 
may be attached the portable fixture used for individual 
examinations. 

Passing into the north building, and leaving the cen- 
trally located diet kitchen on the left, and closing the two 
sets of doors which shut it off from the rest of the build- 
ing, the visitor enters the isolating section, which contains, 
besides its four rooms of two beds each, a bath room, 
diet kitchen, etc. In addition to the mechanical ventila- 




Fourth Floor Plan 
Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital 

tion, designed to keep the atmosphere pure in these rooms, 
the wide corridor is so planned as to create a thorough 
draft for the comfort of the attendants and physicians. 

The entire floor above the north building is fitted up 
with all the attention to details which time and study 



124 



St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 



' ntT—mmmiim 



could devise to produce a complete research laboratory. 

Besides the general laboratory^ sixteen by twenty-four 

feet^ there is a museum, library, thermostatic room and a 

private laboratory. 

In its proper place, 
crowning the whole, is the 
operating suite on the fourth 
floor of the north building. 
Besides the surgeon's office, 
the doctor's preparation 
room, lavatory and etherizing 
rooms, there are two bril- 
liantly lighted operating 
rooms, one on either side of 
the sterilizing room, which 
serves them. 

In addition to the care- 
fully studied methods of 
heating, ventilating and 
lighting, there is a students' 

Maternity Hospital ti • t p it i 

gallery m lieu oi the nearly 
obsolete amphitheater. Here students can assemble in full 
view of the operation, within hearing of the operator's 
voice, though kept from any contaminating influence by a 
continuous screen of plate glass. 

After leaving the above hospital, if the visitor will 
turn into Theresa Avenue and walk one block north, he 
will arrive on Lucas Avenue, where an eastbound "Page'' 
car will take him to his next stopping place — Jefferson 
Avenue. By walking south past the Coliseum, he will 
soon reach Locust Street. Turning into this street and 
walking some steps westward, he will find himself oppo- 
site an old-fashioned residence of the sort that excited our 
envy some years ago, before we knew how to talk inspir- 
ingly about French Renaissance, Queen Anne, Tudor 




Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 125 



Gothic, and other forms of architecture. The Maternity 
Hospital is still in its incipient stage ; hence its temporary 
housing in a Building that never was intended for a hos- 
pital. But be this as it may, its youth invites no adverse 
criticism; rather should one be inclined to praise all its 
efforts, since even in its cramped condition it is meeting 
a long-felt want. St. Louis is not too greatly submerged 
under an overweight of maternity hospitals that it should 
not rejoice in the beginnings of a charity which is already 
giving forth indications that before long it will develop 
along wider lines. 

By walking east on Locust Street, the visitor is not 
long in arriving at St. John's Hospital, which is at the 
intersection of this thoroughfare with Twenty-third Street. 
Aside from the excellent arrangement of its interior, this 
hospital has much to recommend it, since its out-patient 
clinic is one of the largest in the city. In fact, from its 
inception the free clinic has been "featured," and its suc- 
cess is most deserving. 

Before leaving 
the West End 
mention must be 
made of two in- 
stitutions which 
are, architectur- 
ally speaking, 
above the ordi- 
nary. One of these 
is the Frisco Hos- 
pital, the other St. Vincent's Asylum. 

The Frisco Hospital is situated on the south side of 
Laclede Avenue near Kingshighway. The building is de- 
signed in a style of architecture known as the English 
Renaissance of the Tudor period, and is divided into tliree 
pavilions. 




^i..-iW 



St. John's Hospital 



126 



St, Louis : Its History and Ideals. 




Frisco Hospital 



The most novel idea about the building is the elimina- 
tion of stairways for convalescent use. Instead of these, 
inclines are used, which not only facilitate the use of wheel 
chairs for moving convalescents from the top to the bottom 
of the building, but also connect the Administration Pa- 
vilion with both the Med- 
ical and Surgical Pa- 
vilions. 

The Central Pavilion 
contains the General 
Office, Private Office, Re- 
ception, Consultation and 
Examination Rooms, and 
the Medical and Surgical 
Pavilions, each having 
four wards of four beds each, and three wards of two beds 
each. 

On the second floor the Central Pavilion has the living 
quarters of the staff, also X-ray and surgical dressing 
rooms, and in the Medical and Surgical Pavilions are 
twenty-two wards for two beds and two wards for one 
bed. This entire floor is for critical cases. 

On the third floor the Central Pavilion has the oper- 
ating suite, consisting of a lead-lined operating room with 
skylight and north light exposure, sterilizing, etherizing, 
consultation and surgeons' dressing and wash rooms. 

St. Vincent's Institution for the Insane is so far re- 
moved from the beaten path affected by the usual sight- 
seer that to reach it requires both time and patience. But 
once the trip is made — after a long ride on a "Suburban" 
car going west and a short ride on a St. Charles car and 
a walk up a gradual incline, tliat is neither long nor short, 
but has all the inequalities of a country road — the goal of 
one's desires is reached; and the recompense is the view 
of a building that looks almost medieval. Because of its 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 127 

elevation it is an excellent coign of vantage for the unin- 
terrupted panorama which spreads before one's eyes; and 
for this reason, if for no other, it appeals to the medical 
mind at once as an ideal spot for those who are alienated. 
Within, the wings of the building are arranged in halls, 
and even a cursory glance at the rooms and the patients 
suffices to convince the visitor that great care is exercised 
in the matter of cleanliness and the individual require- 
ments in each case. The usual number of patients under 
treatment approximates to three hundred and fifty. 

A southbound Jefferson Avenue car will bring the vis- 
itor to the next hospital which should engage his atten- 
tion, the St. Louis Children's Hospital, at the southeast 
corner of Jefferson Avenue and Adams Street. Its pres- 
ent quarters, with the exception of the annex, were ready 
for occupancy in 1884. 




St. Vincent's Institution for the Insane 

During the following sixteen years of very satisfactory 
hospital work, what was forcibly borne in on the Board 
of Managers, from time to time, was the necessity of prop- 
erly providing for contagious cases, both those developing 
in the hospital and those admitted from the outside. In 
addition to this it seemed that to make the work of the 



128 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



Children's Hospital complete, some special arrangement 
should be made for the care of children under two years 
of age. Having these two classes of cases in mind, in 1900 
an annex was built for the care of infants and contagious 
cases, the latter in a completely isolated situation. 

In 1906 several 
important changes 
were started, which 
materially widened 
the scope and in- 
creased the eifect- 
iveness of the 
efforts made for 
the sick children 
in the hospital and 




hose visiting the 



St. Louis Children's Hospital 



dispensary. A 
definite move to 
better the nursing department of the hospital was made 
by the establishment of a training school for nurses, super- 
vised by a well-trained graduate nurse. The dispensary, 
since the opening of the hospital, had been in a small room 
in the basement, and was there looked after by the house 
physician. Two members of the hospital staff were now 
put in charge of the out-patient department, and in a 
short time suitable quarters were provided by the Board, 
with the result that in the last two years there have been 
treated 11,039 cases, as compared with 33,471 for the 
twenty-three years preceding this. A depot for the dis- 
tribution of milk from the Pure Milk Commission is estab- 
lished at the dispensary. This is not only a convenience 
for the neighljorhood, but it has also enal)led the dis- 
pensary physicians to control, intelligently, the feeding of 
infant out-clinic patients. 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 129 

The Lutheran Hospital is gained by taking a south- 
bound Jefferson Avenue car again and stopping at Po- 
tomac Street. From here a walk two blocks west suffices 
to bring the hospital into view. Architecturally it has no 
claims on our attention, since its plainness precludes the 
sort of admiration called forth by graceful lines. But it 
is a substantial building, and within lias the unmistakable 
appearance of a hospital that is looked after with the 
greatest solicitude. The rooms are large and well venti- 
lated, and every convenience a patient may desire seems to 
have been thought of. The operating rooms are equipped 
with all modern appliances, a sure indication tliat no slips 
in hospital management are permitted. An excellent 
Training School for Nurses is connected witli the hos- 
pital, and as a factor in the standing of this institution it 
is of no little importance. 

Continuing the journey south on Jefferson Avenue, the 
next hospital to be considered is the Alexian Brothers', 
which is reached by walking a short distance south on 
Broadway, from the point wliere Jefferson Avenue merges 
into Broadway. This 
hospital is exclusively 
for men, and is man- 
aged by twenty-eight 
Brothers, souie of whom 
are trained nurses, while 
others are engineers, 
laundrymen, cooks and 
druggists. It will read- 
ily be seen that under Lutheran Hospital 

these circumstances a 

solidarity must exist that can only work for the good of 
the institution. There are a number of private rooms, 
about one hundred, but the wards are quite a feature, since 
many patients who come here for treatment are far re- 




' — ; \ 






^Bl 






'-^ffS^ 


^BB 


m^ 


g 


\''^^-m 


Hi 


■ 


m 


i^^w 


N 



Alexian Brothers' Hospital 



130 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

moved from affluence. Each ward has hut ten beds, hence 
the appearance is that of a large room rather than that 
of the usual hospital ward. The department for nervous 
diseases occupies four floors in the new addition. The 
surgical floor has three large operating rooms, newly 

equipped, a sterilizing 
room and an anesthetiz- 
ing room. An operating 
and dressing room is set 
aside for the exclusive 
treatment of skin and 
genito-urinary diseases. 
If the enthusiastic 
seeker of knowledge, as 
it pertains to hospitals, 
is still eager to learn, despite the tcdiousness entailed by 
lengthy car rides, he may adventure on a ride on a south- 
bound Broadway car up to the terminus of the line, and 
then either walk at once a distance of five city blocks or 
wait at his leisure for a "Barracks'^ car. The magnet 
which might draw him so many blocks away from the 
heart of the city is Mount St. Eose's Hospital, the pioneer 
hospital in the State of Missouri to undertake the treat- 
ment of tuberculosis. It entered on its career of useful- 
ness nearly a decade ago, when the isolation of tuberculosis 
cases was still a moot question. The hospital stands in 
the midst of twenty-five acres on an elevation overlooking 
Eiver des Peres. It is housed in a structure of stone and 
brick that is four stories high and contains seventy-five 
beds and twenty-two rooms. The main building, which 
was carefully designed for sanatorium purposes, has all 
the appliances known to modern surgery and medicine. 
There are a general and 1)acteriological laboratory, and a 
clinical laboratory for nose and throat treatment. The 
general plan of treatment is hygienic, medical, and 
dietetic. 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 131 




St. Anthony's Hospital 
ranks among the newer 
hospitals of the city. 
All the rooms are large, 
and what, with its loca- 
tion in a part of the city 
that is as free from 
smoke as any part of 
St. Louis can possibly 
be, its advantages in this 
respect are not inconsiderable 
beds. The nursing is done by the Franciscan Sisters, who 
receive their training in a three years' course in the Train- 
ing School for Nurses, connected with the hospital. To 
reach this institution, which is well worth visiting on ac- 
count of its excellent points in the matter of modern hos- 
pital construction, a southbound Grand Avenue car would 
carry the visitor there, provided he is in the West End. 

The City Hospital is situated at the corner of Four- 
teenth Street and Lafayette Avenue. This is the site 



Mt. St. Rose's Hospital 

Its capacity is one hundred 




St. Anthony's Hospital 



132 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

upon which stood the old City Hospital, that had outlived 
its day long before the cyclone laid its unkindly hand upon 
what was at best a ramshackle building, conceived as the 
abode for the city poor by a generation that was unwise in 
hospital construction. After a period of years spent in 




Administration Building — City Hospital 

a "rented house' ^ that had been abandoned by a Catholic 
Sisterhood on account of its decrepitude, the City Hospital 
returned to its native heath when a rather kindly admin- 
istration awakened to the fact that a proper abode was 
really needed for its housing. Part of the new City Hos- 
pital has been built, and another part is building: all of 
which is matter for rejoicing, since realization, when long 
looked for but constantly delayed by unnecessary obstacles, 
is an ineffable joy when it proclaims, by the slightest 
presage, that all obstacles have at last been overcome and 
its birth is assured. 

The main group of buildings consists of two ward 
buildings, each five stories in height; a surgical and oper- 
ating building, two stories, and a pathological and bac- 
teriological building, two stories. The additions will con- 
sist of a main or administration building, and an east and 
west ward building. It is the intention to move the Fe- 
male Hospital, now located on Arsenal Street near the 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 133 

Iiii^uiie Asyluin, into one of these ward buildingS; while 
the other will be used for the natural increase of the hos- 
pital. Plans for a Nurses' Lodging Hall are now on file 
with the Board of Public Improvements, and no doubt 
before long this will be commenced so that the work may 
be completed at the time the present hospital extensions 
are finished. 

The Municipal Laboratory of Pathology and Bac- 
teriology occupies a substantial building which faces Car- 
roll Street. It is in charge of the City Bacteriologist, two 
Assistant Bacteriologists, and two Laboratory Assistants. 
On the first floor the rooms are equipped and utilized as 
follows: One large, well-lighted room, with carara-glass 
floor and ^vainscoting, is used for post-mortem work. 
This room is large enough to accommodate about twenty 
students, and four of the local medical schools avail them- 
selves of this opportunity to send their students to witness 
autopsies, all of which are conducted by the Citv 
Bacteriologist or his assistants. Adjacent to this room is 
the cold storage department, where bodies may be kept 
for days or weeks. Two rooms are used for the breeding 
and keeping of such animals as are needed in making 
inoculation tests, etc. In 
another room there is in- ^^ 

stalled the largest and 
h e s t microphotooraphic 



&QIWIM 



apparatus made by Carl 
Zeiss. Two rooms are set 
aside for the preparation 
and administration oi 
"virus fixe'' in the Pasteur treatment of rabies. 

On the second floor four rooms are set aside for the 
clinical laboratory work of the hospital. Tbis work is 
performed by junior physicians who alternate every month, 
and who make examinations under the direction and super- 



134 St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 

vision of a senior pli3'sician and the Assistant Pathologist. 
The general office occupies two rooms on this floor, and 
one room is set aside for the storing of supplies. The re- 
maining room on this floor^ the largest in the building, 
has been equipped with museum cases in which instructive 
specimens are placed for demonstration. 

The third floor is used for laboratory work exclusively. 
The three front rooms are for the director and his two 
assistants in their research work. Two large rooms are 
devoted respectively to the routine examination of bac- 
teriological and pathological material. All the preparation 
of culture media and the sterilization of tubes, plates, etc., 
is carried on in a large, well-lighted, well-ventilated room 
in the rear. 

No laboratory can perform its work to the best ad- 
vantage unless it keeps in close touch with other institu- 
tions of like character, and this can only be done through 
the medium of current literature. Access to the scientific 
publications of co-laborers is as essential to success in this 
line as is a good microscope and its accessories. Moreover, 
before attempting to solve any problem or to investigate 
any sanitary measure, one must have the results of pre- 
vious experiments at hand. To this end, one room on this 
floor has been set aside for the library, and complete sets 
of journals have been secured. 

The relation between the hospital and this laboratory 
is intimate, and is an essential aid in diagnosis and treat- 
ment. The routine examination of sputum, blood and 
urine is made by junior physicians assigned to this posi- 
tion. Special physiological and chemical examinations, 
which require more experience and training, are made by 
the Assistant Pathologist. Tissue and specimens from the 
operating room and wards requiring diagnosis are exam- 
ined by the City Bacteriologist. 



Medical Schools^ Hospitals, Institutions. 135 

Autopsy material is very large. In the past two years 
there were made five hundred and eleven autopsies in the 
laboratory. Material from each autopsy is preserved, and 
the microscopical examination of this is recorded and 
indexed. 

Another department of the City Hospital, which should 
be mentioned if only on account of the fact that it was a 
pioneer in a rather unwelcome age, is the St. Louis Train- 
ing School for Nurses. When this organization was a 
mere fledgling, some twenty-five years ago, its value and 
importance to the community were not appreciated, be- 
cause the necessary enlightenment as to its high purposes 
was not the illuminating chapter it should have been in 
the lives of all thinking men and women. True, the Sairey 
Gamps had passed away, but in their place appeared a 
number of women who took up nursing as a means of live- 
lihood, not because they were specially fitted for the task, 
but rather on account of their inclination to do something 
that was superior to servile work. If they were less given 
to the immortal Sairey's vices, their mental slovenliness 
w^as of the same low grade, and what tliey did not do in the 

way of nursing, _ _ 

as understood to- 
day, would fill 
many volumes 
with poignant 
tragi - comedies. 
If I mistake not, 
it was the 

enthusiasm of a Missouri Pacific Hospital 

"lady doctor," as the pliraso goes, a Dr. Cornelia Board- 
man, who afterwards married Mr. William H. Pulsifer, 
that was the real incentive in the matter of starting in St. 
Louis the first traininti: school for nurses. 




136 



St. Louis : Its History axd Ideals. 



Upon leaving the Cit}' Hospital^ if the visitor will turn 
into Lafayette Avenue and walk a distanee of four blocks 
west, he will arrive at Mississippi Avenue, where a west- 
bound car will take him to California Avenue. B}^ walk- 
ing two blocks north the Missouri Pacific Hospital will be 




Josephine Huspital 

reached. The building, in which this hospital is housed, 
is an old-fashioned structure which shows, in its various 
additions, that as the hospital grew the demand for in- 
creased sjDace was met by an architectural accretion that 
was not always in harmony with the older buildings. But 
this is not unusual in hospitals that have grown as rapidly 
as has the Missouri Pacific Hospital. To meet any further 
demands for space, plans have already been drawn for an 
edifice that will combine commodiousness with all that is 
modern in hospital construction. The bed capacity is two 
hundred and twenty ; a number that is wholly inadequate 
considering that it is the chief receiving hospital of the 
Missouri Pacific System, which entails the receiving of 
patients from such outlying points as El Paso, Fort Worth, 
Dallas, Galveston and other cities. 



Medical Schools, ITospitals, Txstitutioxs. 137 

By retracing his steins on California Avenue^ tlie vis- 
itor will find himself on Lafayette Avenue, a street Avhich 
has already been described. Continuing in a westerly 
direction on this thoroughfare, Grand Avenue is soon 
reached. If he will now walk one block northward, a four- 
storied gray brick building will be seen, which has the 
distinction of being the only private hosi^ital in the city. 
The Josephine Hospital is about as ideal a hospital for a 
surgeon who wishes to concentrate his work as one could 
desire. The fact of its capacity being limited to twenty- 
five beds is not a detriment, but an advantage, since it 
precludes the necessity of having other than surgical cases. 
A numl)er of attempts have hitherto been made to estal)- 
lish, on a firm basis, hospitals of small dimensions, but 
for some unexplained reason they have always been failures. 

Walking north on Grand Avenue for a distance of five 
blocks, and then turning into Vista Avenue for a short 
distance, the buildings of the Bethesda Foundling Home 
and Incurable Hospital come into view. The Bethesda 
charities are really very worthy ones, and deserve the repu- 
tation which they 
bear, for the work 
which they effect is on 
linos which must ap- 
peal to all who are in- 
terested in those chil- 
dren, who are handi- 
capped to such a de- 

Bethesda Foundling Home 
gree that a hospital ex- and incurable Hospital 

istence is the only one suited to them. 

A south-bound Grand Avenue car, with a change on 
Arsenal Street, and then a westward route, will bring the 
visitor to the St. Louis Insane Asylum, the name of which 
has recently been changed to the City Sanitarium. Orig- 
inally the County Insane Asyluin_, it became a municipal 




138 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

institution in 1876 when the city of St. Louis was sepa- 
rated from the county. The location coukl not be im- 
proved upon^ for it has all the advantages which accrue 
from altitude^, picturesqueness, and sufficient distance from 
crowded neighborhoods, especially those that are embel- 







4 


















=■ 


*^'^; 






1 


1 




"" ^^ 




i 



City Sanitarium (St. Louis Insane Asylum) 

lished with factories. The crowded condition of the orig- 
inal building, a five-storied structure that even to-day is 
architecturally superior to some modern hospitals, will be 
done away with when the wing additions, which are now 
in course of construction, are completed. The magnitude 
of these wings may be comprehended by stating that the 
perimeter of the building is almost one mile, and that it 
has a capacity for the care of eighteen hundred patients. 

The exterior facades of the building are designed in 
Italian Eenaissance in keeping with the old building. The 
east wing is seven stories high at the east extreme, and the 
west wing is six stories at the extreme west, and both wings 
are five stories in the center. 

The east wing is for men and the west wing for women, 
and the center, or Administration Building, is for the 
house staff and general offices. Each floor of each wing 
is divided into four suites for forty patients each. Each 
suite is entered from one of the entrances into a rotunda 



Medical Schools^ Hospitals, Institutions. 139 

lined with marble and tile floor in which are an electric 
controlled elevator and a marble staircase that leads to all 
floors. From the rotunda you enter the corridor of each 
suite, which is ten feet wide and one hundred and fifty 
feet long. This is connected with an outside exercise porch 
and fire escape. Each suite has its own dining room and 
pantry, day rooms, nurses' and attendants' rooms, toilets 
and baths, linen room and dry room for sterilizing bedding. 
The toilets, baths and rotundas are all marble lined with 
tile floors, and the former are equipped with the latest 
sanitary fixtures. There is a dirty-linen chute and dust 
chute from each suite to the basement. 

The ward rooms generally are planned for two beds, or 
single beds, and there are some with twelve beds. On the 
fifth floor of the court wings, both east and west, are two 
hospital suites, one for the care of men, and the other for 
women. 

The Maniacal Building is three stories high, of similar 
construction as the main building. The first, or receiving 
floor, has reception rooms and doctors' offices in the center, 
with seven private rooms for patients on either side: the 
east side for women, and the west side for men, with the 
necessary dining and day rooms, toilets and baths, etc., as 
in the main building. The second floor is for men and 
has twenty-one private rooms. The third floor is similar 
to the second except that it is for women exclusively. 

The charitable institutions of St. Louis are so numer- 
ous that the writer was compelled to assume the privilege 
of selecting only a few so as to enlighten the stranger that 
in this respect the city has not been laggard. The ma- 
jority are housed in buildings that bespeak a regard for 
the comfort of the inmates, and a desire on the part of the 
management to further those amenities of life, which only 
too often were overlooked by institutions of a charitable 
character some decades ago. The broadening influences, 



140 



St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 



which are so incisive to-da}^^ are affecting the matter of 
charity just as much as any other phase of civic life, and 
the beneficent results are clearly seen in the unwillingness 
of officers and boards of trustees to herd those who are 
dependent on charity in buildings that cry aloud for sani- 
tary reforms. 




House of the Good Shepherd 

The House of the Good Shepherd is reached, upon leav- 
ing the City Sanitarium, by taking an cavStl:)ound ^'Tower 
Grove'^ car on Arsenal Street, changing to a southbound 
Grand Avenue car and making another change at tlie 
corner of Grand and Gravois Avenues, by taking a car 
marked "Clierokce" to Bamljerger iVvenue. The order of 
the Good Shepherd was founded in St. Louis in 1849, in 
the old house which stood for many years at the corner of 
Seventeenth and Pine Streets, and was not so great an 
ornament to the city that one need regret its final dis- 
appearance. But after Mr. Adolphus Busch donated the 
ground upon which the new building stands, strenuous 
efforts were made by the Sisterliood to have their future 
home as commodious and modern as possible; and certainly, 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 141 

in the i)resent structure there are all the hall-marks of ex- 
cellent judgment and of that sense of architectural lines 
which it would he well for all cliaritahlc institutions to 
follow. This charity is devoted to the harhoring of young 
women whose ideas of life are not rigidly puritanic. 

There are two charitahle institutions on South Broad- 
way which are distinctive in that they are havens of peace 
and comfort for those whom advanced years have left with- 
out the wherewithal to live in ease elsewhere. One of 
these is at 4431 South Broadwa}^, and is known as the 
Home of the Friendless. Its ohject is to provide a home 
for old ladies who have no other means of support, ^*ho 
have heen residents of the city or the county for at lease 
five years, and who are so placed, after the age of sixty, 
that hy paying the sum of two hundred dollars a home will 
he provided them. A cursory glance at the exterior of the 
l)uilding and the grounds will convince the visitor at once 
that the word "home'^ was uppermost in the minds of the 
projectors of this charity when the selection of suitahle 




Home of the Friendless 



quarters was made, for it has all tliose alluring attrihutes 
which should go with that much-ahused Avord. Within, 
the old-fashioned ness, which is so apparent without, is 
accentuated hy the i)resence of the inuuites; anc7 tlie salient 
point to 1)0 gathered from a visit here, is that a wise judg- 




142 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

ment has exercised its best qualities on behalf of those 
who greatly stand in need of it. 

The other home which is on the same lines is Alten- 
heim_, at 5408 South Broadway. This charity is supported 
outright by the Germans^ and though a recent addition to 

the city's institutions, it 
already shows unmistak- 
ably how much in need a 
certain section of society 
was for just such a home. 
Originally the mansion 
of the late Charles P. 
Chouteau, it has been 
very much enlarged and 
^^^ modernized, though there 

are still, within, many indications in the way of mantels, 
book-cases, etc., of its former ownership. The grounds 
surrounding the building are not its least attraction, and 
the view of the Mississippi from the rear of the building 
is quite inspiring. Both these Homes are best reached by 
taking a southbound Broadway car, which, unlike most 
cars in St. Louis, really runs on Broadway. 

Memorial Home, at Grand and Magnolia Avenues, is a 
structure of ample proportions, and even in its recon- 
structed state, shows, in its center building, that once 
upon a time it was architecturally something above the 
ordinary. (I have no doubt that buildings used by hos- 
pitals, sanatoria, and ^^lomes" need enlarging from time 
to time, but when this is done why are the additions in- 
variably so incongruously out of accord with the original 
building?) 

Memorial Home represents one of our older charities, 
and the fact of its continuous growth indicates that its pur- 
pose of suj)plying a home for aged single men or men and 
their wives, is a very good one, indeed. 



Medical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 1-13 



fo 



Magnolia 




Memorial Home 



The Missouri School 
the Blind, at 3815 
Avenue, is 
within walking distance 
of Memorial Home. It 
was founded in 1851 by- 
Eli W. AVlielan, a blind 
man, who came from 
Nashville, Tennessee, to 
St. Louis to establish an 

institution for the blind. Whelan was a graduate of the 
Philadelphia Institute for the Blind, and prior to his ad- 
vent in St. Louis had been principal of a school for the 
blind at Nashville. Hence he was equipped to know ex- 
actly what St. Louis was lacking in, when he broached the 
matter to the handful of public-spirited citizens who rec- 
ognized that this hiatus ought to be remedied. A few 
years after it was founded as a charitable enterprise, it be- 
came a State Institution, and as such, has given instruc- 
tion to 1134 blind children. Its curriculum is that of a 
public school, but besides this there is an industrial de- 
partment for both sexes. 



g^sc 




Missouri School for the Blind 




144: St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

The boys are taught broom-makings chair-caning, wire 
work, wood sloyd^ and piano tuning. The girls are taught 
knitting, sewing, basket-making and cooking. The build- 
ing is a substantial, fire-proof, three-storied structure, 
especially adapted for its purpose. AA^ien the two wings 

are completed ample 
room will be afforded 
for the music depart- 
ment. 

Both Memorial 
Home and the Missouri 
School for the Blind 
can best be reached by 
the Grand Avenue cars. 
In connection with 

Methodist Orphans' Home 

the Missouri School for 
the Blind, mention should be made of the Blind Girls' 
Home, at 5235 Page Avenue. This Home is an institu- 
tion for the support of indigent blind women of the State 
of Missouri. How, some years ago, James E. Yeatman 
discovered a number of blind girls in a pitiful condition, 
after they had vainly attempted to earn a livelihood, need 
not be reiterated here, but the outcome of his experience 
was the founding of the present home. The new building, 
but recently completed, has two stories and an attic, and 
is built of red brick with terra-cotta above the first floor. 
It has fifty bedrooms, and provides for all the comforts 
humanitarian ideas demand to-day, when buildings are 
specially erected for the care of those who are helpless. 

The Methodist Orphans' Home, on jMaryland Aveniu^ 
near Newstead Avenue, has the double advantage of being 
situated in a part of the city that has spacious streets and 
residences above the ordinary, and in a building specially 
erected for the purpose. After passing through the usual 
chapter of makeshift abodes, which seems to be the history 



^Iedical Schools, Hospitals, Institutions. 145 

of most charitable institutions^ the present quarters were 
made possible through the gift of ^Ir. Samuel Cupples. 
Tlie building from an architectural point of view betrays 
appreciation of proportion^ unostentation and comfort. 

From Maryland Avenue to Carr Street^ where the 
Jewish Educational Alliance is located, is not only a 
lengthy trip on a "^laryland" car, followed l)y a ride on 
a northbound ^'Cherokee/'' but is a complete change of 
scene, since nothing around the Alliance Avill remind the 
visitor of the conventional neighborhood he has just left. 
But it will have its compensations, since it will bring home 
to him the lesson that even among people who are strug- 
gling to make a living, education is not by any means a 
lowly factor in their daily existence. No better settlement 
work is done in St. Louis than that which is effected by 
the Jewish Educational Alliance; hence, an indifference 
to its achievements and its future possibilities would not 
only be in bad taste, but would show an inexcusable inap- 
preciation of high purposes. 

The building is of the ordinary three-storied type witli- 
out any architectural pretensions, but the air of solidity 
that pervades it is better in 
this neighborhood than ar- 
chitectural ornateness. On 
the around floor of the old 



b' 



building are the offices of 




the educational department, j ji ill i | f I ii ,, 



labor bureau, relief depart- "' V ^ | 1 1 f.,,,".j| 

ment and the dispensary. 

T XI 1 -1 T 4-1 Jewish Educational AHiance 

In the new building there 

are on the ground floor the nursery, six large class rooms, 
a large kindergarten room, and a boys' game room. On 
the second floor are typewriting rooms and the house- 
keeping class, and on the third an auditorium accommo- 
dating five hundred or more, library, reading-room, girls' 



room and sewing school. 



146 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

If I have left the St. Louis Medical Society for my final 
remarks, it was done out of no disrespect to this repre- 
sentative body of medical men. Since its inception, in 
1835, the St. Louis Medical Society has always stood for 
what is highest in local medical circles. Euskin, in the 
"Stones of Venice," says: "We require of a light-house, 
for instance, that it shall stand firm and carry a light; if 
it do not this, assuredly it has been ill built." And the 
same might be said of this society, for it has always stood 
firm, no matter what the criticism from those who have 
failed of admission; and has carried a light at all times, 
although there may have been periods in its long career 
when the scientific feature Avas not too apparent in the 
papers which were read. 



ClIAPTEK VI. 

UNIVERSITIES^ SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES. 

The Influence of a University in a Community — Old St. Louis 
University — The Purchase from the College of St. Achenil 

— Old Jesuit Church of St. Xavier — Francis Grierson — 
St. Louis University as it is To-Day — Washington Uni- 
versity — Cupples Hall No. 2 — Ridgley Library — Theo- 
dor Mommsen — Preetorius Memorial Library — Busch 
Hall — Eads Hall — Cupples Hall No. 1 — Manual Train- 
ing School — "Natural" Education versus "Classical" Edu- 
cation — Central High School — Soldan High School — 
Academy of the Visitation — David Ranken, Jr., School 
of Mechanical Trades — Mary Institute — Public Library 

— Its Present Quarters — New Central Library — Mercan- 
tile Library — "Beatrice Cenci" and "Dr. Joseph Nash Mc- 
Dowell" by Harriet Hosmer — St. Louis Medical Library 

— St. Louis University Library. 

THE fact of a university being situated in a large 
cit}^ has not the hirgeness or importance that it has 
in smaller communities. In the first place, the 
aura, which always informs a university, does not get far 
enough beyond the university walls to influence outside 
thought to a degree that is striking; and, again, the vast 
interests, which are continually agitating the currents of 
our commercial life, are so decidedly engulfing that the 
small beatings, which are directed against the solid wall 
tliat this sort of life invaria])ly erects, have not the 
reverberating sounds which are apparent in smaller com- 
munities. In Goettingen and Heidelberg, in Oxford and 
Caml)ridge, and in some of our smaller towns, tlie uni- 
versity atmosphere is all-pervading; and, directly, wc 
arrive in either one of these places, this permeating in- 
fluence is borne in on us. Now though this sensation may 



148 



St. Louis: Its History a^^d Ideals. 



not be exjoerienced in cities that count their inhabitants by 
the hnnclred thousand, the university itself is not the less 
effective in its work and in its purpose as a province 
wherein are concentrated the best educational forces. And 
St. Louis bears witness to this in its two universities. 




Old St. Louis University — Ninth Street and Washington Avenue 

One of these, St. Louis Laiiversity, is an integral part 
of the city's evolution, for even before St. Louis had 
shaken off its swaddling clothes — that is, in 1832 — it was 
burgeoning into a university after an honorable career as 
St. liouis College. At that time the group of buihl- 
ings composing the university was located on tlie l)lock 
bounded by Washington Avenue on the south, Ninth Street 
on the east. Green Street, now Lucas x\venue, on the north, 
and Tenth Street on the west. Architectural!}^, they were 
not conspicuous even at a tiuie wlien the buildings in St. 
Louis would not have attracted the eye of the trained 
architect, but they represented, by the extent of surface 
which thev covered, something in the educational line that 



UxivERsiTiES, Schools and Libraries. 149 

was above what the ordinary school-house would have been. 
And by this is meant that this superficial impression was 
more than substantiated by what took place within the 
buildings, for the curriculum was of a calibre that would 
not be scoffed at to-day. In a book entitled ^'Thoughts 
about the City of St. Louis/'^ published in 1854, the fol- 
lowing appeared : "In 1836 tlie College of St. Achenil, in 
France, having been suppressed, tlie university purchased 
its splendid chemical and philosophical apparatus, whicli 
rendered necessary a fourth building for its accommoda- 
tion and the rapidly increasing wants of the establisli- 
ment.*^ How "splendid" tliis purchase was I am not in a 
position to say nor what was meant hy "philosophieal 
apparatus," but the mere fact that the apparatus was 
acquired goes to show that tlie recently chartered Uni- 
versity liad aspirings that were not mediocre. 




St. Louis U]ii\eisity — CJraiul Avenue Side 

But if the university buildings gave every evidence of 
being the handiwork of a builder rather than of an archi- 
tect, one corner of the group stood out with some distinc- 
tion, even though architecturally it was not much above its 
immediate neighbors — the old Jesuit Church of St. Xavier. 



150 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



This church, according to all accounts, must have repre- 
sented to all passers-by, no matter what their religion, 
the concrete idea of a solidity that commands attention 
at once, because of its protest against the ever-changing 
opinions of those who make a cult of discontent. Listen 



^^ 



k 




St. Louis University — ^West Pine Boulevard Side 

to the incisive words of Francis Grierson, whom we have 
already quoted, in regard to an ecclesiastical edifice that 
in 1860 made "all the other churches look very modern 
and very simple" : "The bells of St. Xavier sounded 
like no other bells in old St. Louis. I could hear them 
distinctly where we lived; and I remember three, the far- 
reaching boom of the deeper bell carrying with it a sug- 
gestion of i^eremptory mournfulncss, an impression of 
something fixed and permanent in a city of fleeting 
illusions." 

Perhaps the placid aspect of this church without and 
within, its mothering of the adjoining buildings, had 
much to do with the preserving of the even tenor of life 
and thought within the university walls, so necessary to the 
prosecution of learning! The Universities of Padua, 



Universities^ Schools and Libraries. 151 

Oxford and Paris, perhaps the oldest universities in the 
world, are exemplifications of what this sort of con- 
servatism can do to bring about the desired atmosphere for 
the quietude of mind in the pursuit of knowledge. 

To-day, St. Louis University occupies the English 
Gothic structure on Grand Avenue, Lindell and West 
Pine Boulevards, and while it is not altogether dedicated 
to that phase of modernity that is cliaracterized by in- 
effectual questionings, it is far enough removed from the 
medieval spirit to rank among those conservative institu- 
tions that are mildly modern. 

A university of an altogether different type is Wash- 
ington University, for though it also has had its years of 
conservatism, the sort that it was host to had but little 
justification, for it did not arise from any deep religious 
conviction, but from a sense of self-sufficiency that up to 
a few years ago militated against its progress. Fortunately, 
almost the last vestiges of this have passed away and 
to-day we are witnessing its palingenesis. Whether this 
new spirit received its incentive from the gifts which have 
latterly been showered on Washington University, or 
whether it was born 
of the really good 
material that obtains 
within its walls, is of 
small moment, since 
the not inglorious fact 
remains that the Uni- 
versity has taken a cuppies Haii No. i 

, n TO ,1 , — Washington University 

new lease of life that 

cannot be construed otherwise than an earnest wish to free 

itself from the gyves of conservatism. 

If any one factor in the latter career of Washington 
University illustrates its undeniable stride forward it is 
the number of impressive buildings which have been 



1 


. 




1 


^-m ^ 




SiSli 


t 


laM 








ii^^^^'^BQ 




152 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

erected within the last few years. The}- are all of the 
same style of architecture — Tudor Gothic — and therefore 
make a harmonious whole that is most satisfying. The 
cynic might say that just because the buildings are ex- 
23ensive is no reason whatever that the teaching has 

improved ; and while 
not unlike most 
speeches made by 
cynics there is enough 
truth in the statement 
to hold our attention 
for a time, there is a 
false note in it which 

Busch Hall — Washington University • • i i 

1 n V a r 1 a 1 y occurs 
when hasty conclusions are reached. A new building, 
especially of the university sort, is not a mere ornamental 
shell, but the focal point for an equipment that is as 
modern as it can possibly be. In surroundings, that 
bespeak the advancements which a certain section of science 
has made, the instructor receives the stimulus that must 
result in better work. The human mind, it is true, wdll , 
do its appointed work in circumstances that are not any 
too felicitous, but its best expression, pedagogically con- 
sidered, is always evidenced when it feels that it must not 
be laggard in the matter of appropriating sustenance and 
widening its horizon by juxtaposition with wdiat a uni- 
versity provides to further knowledge. And, in this respect, 
fdl the buildings which start some distance from Skinker 
Road and dot the extensive grounds are attestations, for 
the greatest care has been exercised to make them, 
especially within, exemplifications of modern university 
ideas. 

To single out any one building as the one upon wliich 
the visitor should concentrate his attention would be doing 
the others an injustice. They are all worthy a visit since 



Universities^ Schools and Libraries. 153 

the object-lessons they hold are what university buildings 
ought to be to-day. And since this is so, the best advice to 
be given is to select for inspection, not the building of 
greatest architectural pretensions, but the one that appeals 
to the visitor most on account of the part of education to 
which it is dedicated. I take it, even the casual visitor 
has his predilections; hence my advice is to follow them 
irrespective of what a so-called mentor might say. For 
instance, if his mind runs to things mechanical, he will find 
ample opportunities to gratify his desire to learn, in a 
visit to Cupples Hall No. 2, where he will see what 
progress the study of mechanical and electrical engineer- 
ing has made in the last decade. In the rear of this hall 
there will be opened in September the Cupples Engineer- 
ing Laboratory and Shops, a donation of Mr. Samuel 
Cupples, who, by the way, has been one of the greatest 
benefactors of the University. In this building is a 
laboratory two hundred feet long and sixty-five feet wide, 
which will contain the usual laboratory equipment for 
testing, and for the higher work in mechanical and 
electrical engineering. 
In the two large ex- 
tensions from this 
main laboratory there 






will be installed the 
most perfect shop 
equipment that could 
be planned, consisting 

of a ^ foundry, forge, Eads Hall-Washington University 

machine and pattern shops. 

But if the visitor is not too greatly enamored of 
mechanics, and longs for the quiet which only the store- 
house for books can grant, he will not fail to find it within 
the precincts of Eidgley Library. A¥hile the space that has 
been set apart for the collection of four hundred thousand 



154 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



yr_ 



1^- •- *^ 



"^^um-^ <}-^^^^^^mmmm: 



Cupples Hall No. 2 — Washing-ton University 

books is not as yet overweighted, the beginnings are not so 
mean that they need be scornfully treated by a critic. A 
•university library demands so much judgment, in the 
matter of what books should be selected, that its growth is 
necessarily somewhat impeded; and though no one would 
pit the Washington University Library, as it exists to-day, 
against such treasures as one finds at Oxford, Harvard and 
even at the University of Chicago, it nevertheless has some 
good points, one of which has recently been strengthened 
by a portion of the library of the late Theodor Mommsen, 
Grermany's most erudite nineteenth-century historian. Nor 
should the Preetorious Memorial Library be overlooked, 
for its ten thousand volumes, while limited to the German 




Ridgley Library — Washington Univeisity 



Universities^ Schools and Librakies. 155 

language;, are important in that they assist^, as nothing else 
could^ in teaching the American student with his hazy 
notions as to the value of German literature^, that here is 
a treasure-trove well Avorth his exploring. 

But whether one's attention is arrested hy Busch Hall 
on account of an interest in chemistry^ Eads Hall, for its 
photography and optical experiments, or Cupples Hall No. 
1, by reason of its departments of civil engineering and 
architecture, the impression does not vary, for each one 
evidences that sense of modernity without wliich progress 
is bound to meet with insuperable obstacles. 

The Manual Training School of Washington University 
is unique in that it was the first institution of high school 
grade in this country to make instruction in the mechanic 
arts an essential part of its curriculum. When we recall 
those narrow educational days, Avhich we lovingly and 
foolishly call "the good old days,^^ because things went on 
smoothly, unmolested by any other educational thought for 
the young than con- 
tinuance in the rut 
which our forefathers 
had ploughed so care- 
fully, and which meant 
for all boys, irrespective 
of their inborn 
capacities and aptitudes, 
a "classical" education 
consisting only too 

often of many un- David R. Francis Gymnasium 

digested smatterings, a -Washington University 

school, that has for its object the encouragement and 
development of the natural bent of the student, should 
give us pause. In the twenty-nine years of its honorable 
career, the Manual Training School has done a great deal 
of good, for it has been an illuminating chapter in the 




156 



Bt. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



matter of recognizing the right of the individual to follow 
a course of education that will best fit him later on in the 
struggle for existence. But if the hand is robbed of its 
awkwardness and made the ready instrument of the brain, 
the mind of the student is no negligible quantity in the 




Manual Training Scliool 

curriculum of this school^ for it receives the modicum of 
culture that is necessary for the intellectual wrestlings that 
may fall to its lot. And since we cannot all be Walter 
Paters, why should not some of us be honest enough to 
follow our own convictions, even though the sujoerciliously 
"classicar^ student may not approve of our intellectual 
plane ! 

Upon leaving the ]\Ianual Training School, which is on 
Von Versen Avenue and Windermere Way, the visitor 
should pursue his way east on Von Versen Avenue to 
Union Boulevard, if he wishes to see a school-house that is 
about the best expression of public school architecture in 
the city. The Soldan High School, at the corner of 
Union Boulevard and Kensington Avenue, fulfills all those 
promises, in the matter of building schools, which are so 



Universities, Schools and Libuaujes. 



157 



alhiriii! 



when 



seen on paper 
but s () m e li o w 
seldom reach tlie 
stage of material 
fruition. If we 
compare the 
Central High 
School on Grand 
Avenne, near the 
Odeon, with its 
rival on Union 
Boulevard, w^e 
are at once en- 




'.^^Mm^. 



Central High School 



lightened, not onW as to the progress ideas have made, 
even in the last few 3'ears, in connection with what should 
constitute the proper housing of a high school, hut how 
fortunate it is for any huilding to 2:)roceed on the 
stringent lines laid down by the architect, irrespective of 
party bickerings and obstacles thrown up by political 
obstructionists. And surely the Central High School liad 
enough backsets during its construction to have made a 
worse building, architecturally speaking, than is the 




Soldan High School 




Convent of the Visitation 



158 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

conglomeration that to-day attests to the expenditure of 
large sums that failed to get into brick or stone. 

The structure on Union Boulevard is two hundred and 
eighty-eight feet in length and has a depth of two hundred 
and fifty-six feet. The rooms, numl^ering ninety-two, can 

accommodate nearly two 
thousand pupils and are 
so w^ell arranged that 
even the most obstrep- 
erous hygienist would be 
silenced. The Audi- 
torium seats about two 
thousand, and is by no 
means neglected by those 
who are interested in lectures pertaining to education and 
allied subjects; and as for the Music Room, with its limited 
capacity of two hundred and fifty^ most, if not all the con- 
certs, have the stamp that raises them above those 
amateurish attempts at music that always defeat their pur- 
pose — the education of the young. I have mentioned the 
Auditorium and Music Eoom because I wished to show 
that ^Tiigher education,^^ as conceived by the stewards of 
public school instruction in St. Louis, is to-day on a plane 
that includes a number of things which only a few years 
ago would have been deemed unnecessary and impracticable. 
By walking three blocks north on Union Boulevard 
and turning into Cabanne Avenue and then walking one 
rather long block west, the Academy of the Visitation is 
reached. Occupying a modern building that is situated in 
grounds that make a pleasing picture, since they are not 
devoid of some good horticultural points, this Academy 
enjoys consider a1)le reputation as an educational institu- 
tion. Its curriculum affords few opportunities for the 
acquiring of knowledge that might disturb the mental 
equilibrium of young women by causing unrest from vain 



Universities^ Schools and Libraries. 159 

gropings in scientific culs-de-sac, but on the other hand 
care and attention are paid to music, the languages, and, 
best of all, deportment. The Academy is conducted by 
the Religious Sisters of the Order of the Visitation, 
founded in 1610, in Haute- Savoie, France, by Count de 
Sales and the Baroness de Chantal. 

By taking an eastbound "Suburban" car at the corner 
of Union Boulevard and Raymond Avenue and riding to 
Newstead Avenue, and then walking three and a half blocks 
northwards, the visitor will be attracted by a building that 
seems to show in its severe architectural lines the purposes 
for which it was erected. This is not a school that teaches 
the superficialities as they pertain to the sort of education 
with which one wishes to impress one's friends, but an 
educational institution that has for its object the thorough 
training of boys and men so that a deep knowledge of the 
mechanical trades will be acquired. Rather drab, to be 
sure, is this sort of education, when placed alongside the 
ornateness of the instruction one finds in our colleges and 
universities with their intellectual frills and furbelows, but 
how important in fitting many young men for a calling 
which they intend to pursue ! 

The David Ranken, 
Jr., School of Mechan- 
ical Trades, as its 
name implies, is a 
trade school. It was 
founded by Mr. David 

Ranken, Jr., of St. David Ranken, Jr., 

T • 1 J? 1 ' School of Mechanical Trades 

Louis, because oi his 

conviction that there was need for thorough and systematic 
instruction for mechanics. The school is purely a 
philanthropic institution. It exists, as Mr. Ranken says 
in his foundation deed, for the purpose of "training and 
fitting boys and men for the mechanical or manual trades 





160 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

and occupations.'^ The instruction to be given must 
always be practical, "having in mind the need of the com- 
munity and the State for practical workers in the 
mechanical trades, who shall be skilled in their respective 
trades and occupations and have such education as will 

, , best fit them to serve the 

community and the State 
in such occupations." 

Boys are admitted at 
the age of fifteen or over, 
and are required to have 
sufficient education to 
enable them to read and 

Mary Institute write and to USe 

arithmetic with some intelligence. This w^ould mean 
about six grades in the public schools. 

The school aims to cover a wide range of trades, and 
as its work develops it will add on many subjects in addi- 
tion to those which are now offered. At present the work 
is limited to two-year courses in bricklaying, carpentry, 
pattern making, painting, plumbing, and steam engineer- 
ing. Most of the pupiFs time is spent in the shop, per- 
forming operations in his trade under an instructor who 
has had successful experience as a workman in that trade. 
In addition to the shop work a pupil spends about eight 
hours a week in applied mathematics, drafting, applied 
science, and building construction. The aim in all the 
instruction is to make mechanics who will be thoroughly 
skilful with their tools and have, in addition to skill, in- 
dustrial intelligence and the ability to think out their own 
problems as these arise in the day's work; in other words, 
to make "self-directing'^ mechanics. 

The day school opened September 7, 1909, and has an 
attendance now of about sixty pupils. 



Universities^ Schools and Libraries. 161 

Wlicn the visitor enters Mary Institute, at the 
northwest corner of McPherson and Lake Avenues, he is 
in a different world, for here are taught the daughters of 
the well-to-do. In the hulletin of 1908-1909 one may read 
that '^"Mary Institute was originally estahlished to give the 
best possible education a school can afford and render it 
unnecessary for the people of St. Louis to send their 
daughters away from home while still in the critical and 
formative years of girlhood.'^ An announcement such as 
this should not be read with too critical an eye, for it 
might result in some comparisons that would not be to the 
credit of the school that indulged in fulsome praise of 
itself. But making all due allowance for the claims which 
Mary Institute puts forth in the matter of superior educa- 
tion, it has one factor in its favor, and that is its atmos- 
phere, which cannot but conduce to all the amenities which 
add so much to the humdrum of school-life. This must 
necessarily be absent from a school in which intellectual 
rivalry is rife and the towering ambition of a minority 




Central Public Library 

u}).sets the [)1aci(lity of tlie luajority. The jarring note in 
the daily life in the school-room certainly has its dis- 
advantages, but when too greatly suppressed, does this not 
militate against the desired development of the intellect? 

No description of the educational factors which enter 
into the life of a community would be complete without 



162 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

mention of its libraries. While St. Louis lias no reference 
library of the magnitude of the Astor Library, now a part 
of the N'ew York Public Library, or the Newberry Library 
at Chicago, its homes for books have the proportions that 
can without exaggeration be called goodly. The Public 





1 J^'T'f Tjii 



Cabanne Branch Carondelet Branch 





Crunden Branch Barr Branch 

Branch Public Libraries 

Library is hardly in its proper home, as the Central 
Library building is still in a state of incompleteness, with 
no strong indications that work will progress any faster 
in the future than in the past : chapters in building which 
certainly would not make frenetic reading were a truthful 
historian to describe them. 

But if the unkind critic sees nothing but delay in the 
main building, he must in all justice admit that the 
erection of the branch libraries has proceeded at quite a 
merry clip, for already there are five of these to attest to 
the truthfulness of this statement. 

At present the Public Library is housed in a business 
structure at Ninth and St. Charles Streets, and when the 
characterization of the present quarters is kindly spoken 



Universities/ Schools and Libraries. 163 

of as "temporary/^ a spirit of benevolence is manifested 
towards a building that has not even the first qualifications 
for a library. But the new building when completed will 
make amends for all past delays, for its proportions will 
be ample, its modernness unimpeachable, and its dignity of 
architecture the sort that will make us forget the un- 
attractiveness of the present "rented home." 

The Library possesses 279,222 volumes and has an 
annual circulation of 1,218,215. It operates a central 
Library, five branch libraries (a sixth to be opened in 
August, 1910), over sixty delivery stations and about one 
hundred traveling libraries, of which many are used as 
adjuncts by the Public Schools. 

The Mercantile Library, at the southwest corner of 
Broadway and Locust Street, is a subscription library that 
holds its own against the increasing popularity of the 
Public Library. It is no recent institution, for it has 
behind it some sixty years, which have all been years of 
progress towards making it a 
private circulating library of the 
first order. \A^iile its collection of 
books is not so large as that of the 
Public Library, their number — 
135,000 — indicates a steady ascent, 
as 5,000 volumes are added each 
year. 

The Library contains the only 
complete set of British patent 
specifications in St. Louis. It 

has two noteworthy special COllec- Mercantile Library 

tions. One is a collection of early books relating to the 
West, the bequest of John M. Peck, a pioneer Baptist 
minister of Illinois. The other is a collection of books on 
alchemy, originally the property of Gen. Ethan Allen 
Hitchcock, and the gift of his heirs. A portion of the 



r 


1 



1C4 



St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 



manuscript journal of Auguste Chouteau^ describing the 
founding of St. Louis^ is also among its valuable posses- 
sions. The greater part of this journal was destro3^ed by 
fire in Baltimore. 




St. Louis Medical Library — Medical Society- 
Many important works of art have come into the 
possession of the library. Among these are the paintings 
of George C. Bingham, the Missouri artist; the sculptures 
— "Beatrice Cenci^^ and a bas-relief marble portrait of Dr. 
Joseph Nash McDowell, by Harriet Hosmer ; a portrait of 
Governor William Clark, by Chester Harding; a bust of 
Thomas H. Benton ; a portrait of Joseph Charless, founder 
of the first newspaper established in St. Louis; and a 
sculptured slab of marble from Nineveh. 

The St. Louis Medical Library is housed in com- 
modious quarters at 3535 Pine Street. This association 
was organized in 1899 ; hence it has been in existence long 
enough to show that its virility is not to be questioned. It 
is distinct from the St. Louis Medical Socict}^, which 
adjoins it, and quite proud it is of its independence: not 



TTniversities^ Schools and LiBRAiiiEs. 165 

the pride that is born of scorn, but the better sort that 
emanates only from a sense of being unhampered. The 
St. Louis Medical Library is a concrete instance of what 
enthusiasm can do to bring about the birth and growth of 
an association, for it is no exaggeration to say that had the 
originators been lackadaisical it would still be in embryo. 
And to-day it is sufficiently revealing of the fact, that it 
is an important factor in the medical education of those 
men who find it necessary to keep abreast of the times by 
reading the best periodical literature of the day. The 
library contains 12,250 bound volumes, mostly consecutive 
numbers of important American and foreign journals. 
One hundred and seventy-five current journals are at tlie 
disposal of the members. 

The bibliophile who likes nothing better than to turn 
the musty pages of some half -for gotten folio, should make 
a point of visiting the library of St. Louis University. For 
here his eyes will be gratified by seeing such incunabula as 
John Gerson's "Treatise on the Sacrament of Penance,'' 
Nuremberg, 1478; "Summa Sancti Thomas,^' Alost, 1490; 
St. Gregory's "On the Psalms," 1499; and the following 
facsimile reproductions of ancient manuscripts : "Do 
Eepublica,"' fourth century, Vatican Library; the "Vatican 
Vergil," fourth century, Vatican Library; the "Greek 
Bible," circa 380, Vatican Library, and a manuscript Bible 
in Latin, from "Proverbs" to "Hebrews," written between 
1300 and 1350. 

Where there are as many valuable works as in this 
librar}^, no short list can possibly convey to the reader an 
adequate impression of the whole. But, on the otlier hand, 
nothing is more tiresome to read than an interminable list 
of books that enlightens the reader only as to the title and 
date of publication. Recognizing tlie value of tliis 
truism, the author will mention only two otlicr works, the 



166 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

omission of whicli would reflect on his judgment as a 
self-appointed guide to the reader. One is the "Domesday 
Book/'' 119 Volumes, folio, the gift of the English Govern- 
ment. Each volume of this monumental set has printed on 
the reverse of the title page : "This book is to be per- 
petually preserved in the Library of St. Louis University. 
Kecord Commission, March, 1831, C. P. Cooper, Sec- 
retary.'^ The other is "The Geograpliy of the World," by 
Blaevius, XI Volumes, folio, Amsterdam, 1662, sup- 
plemented by two large movable globes : one celestial, the 
other terrestrial. As to the accuracy of the maps in this 
beautiful work, it should suffice to state that the authority 
of the author was quoted more than once in the dispute on 
the Venezuelan boundary during the administration of 
Grover Cleveland. 



CHAPTER VII. 

IDEALS. 

"The pronounced realist is a useful fellow-creature, but 
so also the pronounced idealist— stouten his work though 
you well may with a tincture of modern reality.'' 

Richard Watson Gilder. 

EUROrEAN travelers, who visit our shores to study 
the civic life of American cities, are wont to express 
surprise because they imagine that we have allowed 
our immense activity to throttle certain ideas, which, to 
their highly trained eyes, are of paramount importance in 
the upbuilding of a community. Wliile what they say is 
not completely divorced from the truth, only too often are 
their views biased on account of preconceptions. And even 
when these preconceptions are not of the militant sort: 
are not so ineffaceable but that fresh experiences derived 
from envisaging the subject at close quarters are effective 
in straightening out some of the oblique lines of their 
vision, they feel that our Americanism would be insulted 
were they not to write, in large, fat letters, encomiums on 
our irrepressible commercialism. 

On account of these attitudes, which are not only 
peculiar to the European critics but are to some extent 
shared by a certain coterie of native critics whose imitative 
qualities are their only asset, the various writings on our 
civic matters have a sameness that shows small concern for 
any educative ferment which might be working slowly, but 
surely, in all directions, to the disadvantage of a rampant 
commercialism. Of course, it takes an acute eye to see a 
weakling in the midst of a company of noisy giants, but 



168 St. Louis: Its History and Ideals. 

even so, its dwarf-like manifestations should not go un- 
appreciated. For by the right appreciation two very im- 
portant objects are achieved: the struggling endeavors of 
the educative factor in civics are countenanced in a way 
that means much for the future of our communities, and 
the criticisms of the past are no longer acquiesced in, since 
the beneficent quality that ensues from a new point of view 
proves them to be wide of the mark. 

The awakening of the needs of what might be called 
"higher civics" is not peculiar to any one part of the 
country or to any one city. All American cities to-day are 
more or less interested in this movement, and though the 
best manifestations are more obvious in the larger cities, 
there is no denying that even smaller communities are 
bitten with the "disease.'' That, for many years, but little 
thought was given to this matter is of no moment in our 
present-day attitude of a willingness to wipe out the mis- 
takes of the past ; nor should our remissness be held up to 
us as an object-lesson upon which to found the theory that 
all our future strivings will be footless. It is an old story 
and one that we know only too well : the obdurate front we 
used to put up, when suggestions came from afar that we 
were neglecting the important things, without wliich our 
civil life was bound to end in a one-faceted affair, that 
would be sadly wanting in the qualities which are cultural. 
But we were young then, and although our bones have not 
the brittleness of old age, enough maturity is upon us now 
to recognize that the lacunse, still remaining in our civic 
structure, must be filled by something better than the 
materials wiiich we have used in its upbuilding in the past. 

I hold no brief for St. Louis in the matter of educa- 
tion, as this maligned word is used in its broadest sense, 
but since its endeavors are on a par with those of other 
American cities of its size, the slightest inappreciation 
would be an injustice that could not be condoned. And 



Ideals. 169 

here it would be well to pause long enough to ascertain 
just what is meant by the word ^'education." If we go 
back some decades in the history of our American cities, 
education was restricted to the sending of the young to 
school to acquire certain rudiments, without which they 
were imfitted for the mature years of life. While this may 
not have sufficed for the few choice spirits amongst us, 
who desired a more expansive interpretation of the word, 
their number was not large enough greatly to affect its 
real restricted meaning. And even with these, education, 
though prosecuted in the higher schools, the colleges, and 
the universities, meant only the acquiring of a limited 
knowledge of the classics, a smattering of the literature of 
the world, and the saturation of their minds with a quan- 
tity of impracticable things, that could not possibly be 
applied to the solution of the problems which were bound 
to come their way. Surely there must have been problems 
in those not remote days of equal importance with ours: 
some of them, I take it, the forerunners of our present 
burning questions, and which, had they been combated to 
some extent then, would not to-day declare themselves by 
their vast proportions. 

But a better day, educationally speaking, is now with 
us, for the knowledge which is to-day gathered in our 
schools and universities is no longer bounded by the four 
walls of the class-room, but is of such latitude and of so 
democratic a tone that the student, directly he leaves a seat 
of learning, is fully prepared to understand the currents 
and undercurrents w^hich are agitating modern existence. 
Whether this is due altogether to a change in the curricula, 
or to the popularization of what is really needed through 
the medium of both press and publicists, would not be easy 
to answer, but the interdependence of the two is more 
apparent than it has ever been before. The gain to the 
public has been inestimable, for out of the alliance there 



170 St. Louis : Its History and Ideals. 

has come the sort of communal mind which has the quali- 
ties to appreciate, that only by striving after an ideal in 
civic matters can social betterment be effected. 

Whether we judge St. Louis in the light of what other 
cities have accomplished, or whether we limit ourselves 
altogether to a contemplation of its progress unassisted by 
comparisons, the lesson to be gleaned is heartening. For 
on all sides there are indications that those bugbears — ^the 
stern realities of life — are being tempered by an ideality 
that was supposed, only a few years back, to belong ex- 
clusively to an older people than we. And though there 
may be some among us who imagine that a work-a-day 
existence is the only one we ought to pursue, since any 
other would be subversive of our prosperity, the general 
feeling is not one of apprehension because a degree of 
ideality pervades the movements that are tending towards 
a higher status of civic performance. 

Ideals, then, in city government, are the order of 
the day. Without them there can be but small advance. 
AVith them, on the other hand, progress is assured. Only 
a few years ago, who would have thought that so practical a 
people as the Americans would retrograde to the lowly 
mental state, which from time immemorial has character- 
ized the visionary ? But the unexpected has come to pass, 
and already there are premonitions that before long there 
will be at least a partial fruition of ideas that have the 
stamp of intellectual bravery. 

No doubt when the citizen whose life has been devoted 
to the drudgery of grubbing for money reads these lines, 
a smile indicative of doubt will flit across his lips, for he 
will place no faith in promises that emanate from so un- 
substantial a source as the shadowy province of abstract 
ideas. But though he were to talk his loudest against a 
mental weakness that glorifies abstract ideas his tilt against 
them would end in his being worsted. Of course, there is 



Ideals. 171 

no use in trying to convince him that all the material 
manifestations, which he sees about him and which fill his 
heart with joy, would not be at his beck and call had not 
some much-ridiculed dreamer forevisioned their realization 
by the advocacy of the necessity of applying certain 
abstract ideas to the needs of the hour. 

While I am not assuming that every citizen of St. 
Louis is boiling over with interest because of the 
prospective improvements which are in the air, there are 
a goodly number who, while yet in full possession of their 
common sense, are guilty of a more enthusiastic feeling 
than lukewarmness. The narrowness of the mental horizon 
which has heretofore been allowed free play in the conduct 
of our civic affairs is no longer in high favor, for the 
reason that an undeniable force, in the shape of steady- 
headed men with ideas, has obtruded itself on the public's 
notice. If, as yet, these champions in the service of reform 
have not been able to fill many credit pages in their ledgers 
with records of deeds accomplished, at least they have put 
forward excellent plans that show enough clear thinking 
and practicality to win over a certain amount of regard 
even from the man in the street — that cynic whose irre- 
pressibility often colors the thought of hundreds of other- 
wise normal men. Any plan, no matter how grandiose, 
that bestirs people into a new channel of thought is better 
than a routine way of thinking that creates self-sufficiency. 

If we admit that idealism has been the propelling 
motive that has brought about the setting aside of certain 
squares in mean neighborhoods as playgrounds for children, 
that it has been the underlying cause for the erection of 
public baths, and for the visionary plans of widening the 
streets around our public buildings, so that their present- 
day narrowness will be swallowed up in park-like areas of 
commendable size, it has been no less effective in the matter 
of education. Would the movement, which means the 



172 St. Louis: Its Histoky and Ideals. 

building of a new medical school, laboratories and hos- 
pitals, so that the medical department of Washington Uni- 
versity shall be stoutened, be beyond the probationary stage 
had not an invincible idealism backed the combined thought 
of Messrs. Adolphus Busch, William K. Bixby, Edward 
Mallinckrodt, Robert S. Brookings, and others ? I doubt it. 
Thus is made plain to us what idealism, when it in- 
forms thoughts which otherwise would be sluggish, can 
effect in bringing about needed reforms. But, when we 
place it on its exalted pedestal, we should not be forgetful 
of the fact that if it is fed too much on a diet of illusions, 
it soon deteriorates into something which at once invites 
ridicule. Only when it is carefully nurtured is it capable 
of acting as the leaven that is absolutely necessary for the 
progressive spirit in civic matters, in educational matters, 
and in all undertakings that no longer have the lowly 
mien that fears comparison. A solicitous care does not 
mean too much pampering, but the furthering of a healthy 
growth by influences derived from without. These in- 
fluences are part and parcel of an unmitigated realism, and 
on account of their nearness to earth are the right ballast 
for an idealism that only too often has a tendency to take 
on a Utopian coloring. If the idealist were not so often 
scoffed at by the realist, a better understanding between 
them would occur, and out of the alliance results would 
ensue of immeasurable good to communities. But as 
things are to-day the alliance, when it takes place, is held 
together by a slender cord that is easily severed. And as 
regards progress in civic matters, more's the pity. 



A Nutrient" Bridge to carr/ 

patients tKrougK acute illness. 

A Food Tonic during 



convalescence. 







Replaces hemoglobin 

Produces red blood corpuscles 

Nourishes the tissues 

in Anemia 



cTWOUNTAIN 
VALLEY SPRINGS 




HOT SPRINGS, ARK. 

cTVIountain Valley W^ater is a valuable remedy in 
every form of Kidney Disease. Especially is this true in 
Bright's Disease, Diabetes and inflammation along any 
part of the urinary tract. It is prescribed by physicians 
in nearly every State in the Union, and agencies have 
been established in many of our largest cities, through 
which our customers may be supplied with Mountain 
Valley Water fresh from the springs. 

ORDERS MAY BE ADDRESSED TO THE 

cTWOUNTAIN VALLEY SPRINGS CO. 

HOT SPRINGS, ARK. 

OR TO THE FOLLOWING AGENCIES: 

ST. LOUIS— The Mountain Valley Water Co. of Missouri, 3935 Duncan Ave. 

MEMPHIS— The Mineral Water Co. of Tennessee 

CHICAGO— The Mountain Valley Water Co. of IMinois, Pauline and Kinzie Sis. 

OMAHA — The Myers-Dillon Drug Co., Sixteenth and Farnum Sts. 

NEW YORK— The Mountain Valley Water Co., 106 West Forty-Fourth St. 

DETROIT— The Mountain Valley Water Co. of Michigan, 183-185 Woodbridge St. 

NE^V ORLEANS— Mineral Water Service Co. 



NUCLEIN and NEURO-LEGITHIN 

Accepted by the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry 

One Combats Infection; The Other Improves Nerve Tone 

We have worked hard on these preparations and have suc- 
ceeded in bringing- them to a state of perfection that permits 
of their presentation to the profession with an assurance of 
satisfaction quite beyond the ordinary. We recommend them 
for your consideration, in septic surgical conditions, tuberculosis 
and other wasting diseases. 

RIGHTLY USED IN RIGHT CASES- EXCELLENT RESULTS 
Neuro- Lecithin, y2-gr. pills or tablets, 100, 65c; 500, $2.90 

1000 5.75 

Nuclein Solution, standardized to 1-67 gr. (.001 gm.) 
organic (vegetable) phosphorus to each Cc. Per 

doz. ozs 3.50 

Per oz., in less than V^-doz, quantities, 35c; per 

pint 4.00 

In Ampules, 2 Cc. each, boxes of 12, per doz. 

boxes 7.50 

Per box in less than i/^-doz. quantities 75 

Nuclein Solution Tablets, for use by the mouth, 2 

minims each, 100, 16c; 500, 65c; 1000 1.25 

Hypodermic Tablets, 8 minims each, tubes of 25 25 

Bottles of 100 90 

Special Nuclein Syringe, all-glass, 5 Cc. capacity.... 3.00 
Liberal samples (tablets only) and valuable literature 
will be sent to interested physicians, on request, 
mentioning this journal. 
SPECIAL: Or, in lieu of samples and once only for intro- 
ductory purposes, we will send to any physician (not good 
through the trade) three bottles of Nuclein Solution or 1000 
tablets as specified, and 100 Neuro-Lecithin (or any combination 
of the above, including both preparations, aggregating not over 
$2.00 at the prices quoted) on receipt of this advertisement and 
$1.00. 

The Ward Outfit, complete, for the Intravenous Infu- 
sion of Nuclein in Tuberculosis, etc., including 

100 Physiologic Saline Solution Tablets $4.75 

This "outfit," with 2 bottles of Nuclein Solution 
added (70c), will be sent to physicians only, on 

receipt of this advertisement and 5.00 

Physiologic Saline Solution Tablets, for making di- 
luent solutions to use with this outfit, per 100.. .50 
Ethyl Chloride Spray should be lightly applied prior 
to the introduction of the needle: Convenient 

spray-tube of 40 gms., $1.00; of 100 gms 1.60 

Cash must accompany orders. Delivery will be prepaid. 

Money back if not satisfied. 
Valuable Therapeutic Literature will be sent on request. 

THE ABBOTT ALKALOIDAL COMPANY 

RAVENSWOOD, CHICAGO 

NEW YORK: 251 Fifth Ave. SEATTLE: 225 Central BIdg. 

SAN FRANCISCO: 371 Phelan BIdg. 

NOTE. — Ordei-s at regular prices may go to either point, or 
to the trade. Requests for samples and special orders at these 
prices must come to Chicago. 

We have the confidence, therefore the preference, of 
the Medical Profession 



G 






I o 
^ a 
.5 a 

.en 

Sis 

l*s 

CO S 

3 O 



bfi 



rs ^ h S P M 

jC 
U 



^ g. 



S ij i 
i « 2 

Cow 



f r^ r 






C/3 



13 S 

(U (U 

o c 



^ kH <»< • (U W 



2 ns •_5 
050 



(U 

•«^ a o ^ 

o S 0.^3 s 

4-. (0 jr fl) o 

O CO bO 4_, 

^ JJ (U C D 

.2 Sio-s o 

> c t: £ " 



bo 



? 5 <u -^ •r 

> o ^ o b 

^^ 3 <u ^ 

o (C cr &c > 



ctran :> . 



■iji< 



f^J 



Em 

.£C35 

CO 



-^ s.$^s 



J 4) r^ "CD 5 c 



J - . g -J t>. 03 

JZ JCL^ M g 5^J 
ij'^O'o'ocn-CZ t c 

iooOOOu,^ r o 

B u i. I- u u cZ. °^ 
o V t) "^ V V a a[J -• 

o Q o. Q. a a-o >- c ^! 
o aaaaa=^ § „ 

„Cnc/3(/3V372-t -. I 

S E S E E E-? |_o, 

2 H H H E- f- t- S cn U, 1 
CO 



c/5 J: 

Di o 

§1 
Z o 

S ^ 

o 

S if 

§i 



c_n. 
.2 V 

0-T3 



ST 



s 

o 
en 

J 

'u 

(U 




\m^^m^^m^^ii;^m^^(^f^m^^i^^ 







i 



Mellin's Food 
Elxhibit 

No physician should leave St. Louis 
without visiting our exhibit in the Coliseum 
-spaces 59 and 60. 

Any questions regarding Mellin's Food 
and its application to infant feeding will 
be cheerfully answered. 

To any physician who will leave his 
name and home address with any of our 
representatives at our exhibit, we will 
gladly send Trial Bottles of Mellin's Food 
and a copy of each of the following books: 

The Mellin's Food Method of Percent- 
age Feeding. 
Formulas for Infant Feeding. 
The Home Modification of Cow's Milk. 
The Care and Feedmg of Infants. 
Diet after Weaning. 

MELLIN'S FOOD COMPANY, BOSTON, MASS. 



A Food -Tonic 



which will promote nutrition, supply definite 
food value, and mildly stimulate the reparative 
processes, is supplied by 



p^^HEUSER-BUsc,/'5 

It possesses the tonic prop- 
erties of Saazer hops, the food 
value of more than 1 4 per 
cent of pure malt extract, and it 
contains less than 2 per cent 
of alcohol. 

is a perfect malt extract and 
should not be confused with 
cheap dark beers, many of 
which are represented to be 
medicinal malt products. 



Pronounced by the U. S. Revenue Department a 

PURE MALT PRODUCT 

and not an Alcoholic Beverage 

Sold by all druggists 




i^l / SPARKLING J^,ct\ 




Members of the American Medical Association and their guests 
are invited to visit the plant of the Anheuser-Busch Brewing 
Association. Guides will be in readiness to attend visitors dur- 
ing the hours of 8:30 to 1 1 a. m. and 1 to 4 p. m. 



Anheuser-Busch 



Saint Louis 




First and Permanent Aid to the 
Injured Doctor 

We oflFer immunity 
from many of your 
present troubles. Our 
Capital, Energy and 
Experience (we are 
the pioneers) have 
exerted themselves in 
your behalf. 
Our forms cover 
every branch of med- 
ical science. 

By their use you will have complete and available case- 
records — records taken in your office, in the factory, at 
any point of emergency, or at the bedside. Accurate 
records, not histories written from memory after the lapse 
of a day or a week. 

You will at the same time have your accounts accurately 
posted to date and instantly accessible. 
To make you worth more to yourself, to your profession 
and the community — to help you secure your rightful 
recompense, and at the same time make your work a real 
pleasure, is our object. Our users say we have accom- 
plished it. 

The Physicians' and Surgeons' Account 
Register and Case Recorder 



Obviates the forgotten call. 
Eliminates the neglected charge. 
Keeps every account posted to 
the dot. 



Saves much valuable time daily. 
Makes and collects more money 

for you. 
Preserves complete, accurate and 

available case-records. 



Increases the confidence which your patients now have in you. 
Enables you to become a better practitioner and an ornament 
to your profession. 

For full particulars write 

The American Case and fiegister Co. 

Salem, Ohio, U. S. .A. 



You are cordially invited while in St. Louis to 
. . . visit . . . 

UNIVERSITY CITY 

and inspect the great publishing plants of The 
Lewis Publishing Company and the superb Acad- 
emy of Fine Arts of THE AMERICAN 
WOMAN'S LEAGUE located there. 



Take any "Delmar Garden" car direct to buildings. 
The buildings will be open day and night to visitors. 



OCULISTS, ATTENTION! 

THE HOUSE OF ALOE 

STRICTLY ETHICAL OPTICIJNS 



Prescription work for oculists of a character in a class by 
itself. No junk materials, but only the highest quality that 
money can buy are used by us. 

KRTPTOK MANUFACTURERS 

We are licensed and authorized manufacturers of Kryptok 
Lenses, the lens that is going to drive the cement bifocal to the 
ash barrel. Send us your prescriptions for Kryptoks. 

Correspondence solicited. 

A. S. ALOE CO. 

513 Olive St. and 539 N. Grand Ave. 

St. Louis, Mo. 
For 60 years Standard of the world. Established 1860. 



^w 


The 


/ ^^^^aV 


Franco- American 


%^^^^s 


^ Food Co/s 




special 


lB^O^^^^n|L^ 


Broths for Invalids 

also 


Soups 


and other Table DeKcacies 




for the well people 




Jersey City, N. J. 


Our kitchen 


always open to visitors is our best advertisement 



Mudlavia Mud -Bath 
Treatment 



The combined rest and bath treatment for so-called rheumatic 
diseases; also neuritis, nephritis, eczema, stomach, liver and bowel 
troubles. 

Mud and water baths. Mineral Spring waters, scientific massage, 
the various electrical and ray treatments, as ordered by the physician 
referring patient to us. 

No contagious, infectious or insane cases accepted. The 
general supervision and after-treatment of patients under supervision 
of home physicians. 

Elimination, relaxation, rest and quiet, so necessary in the treat- 
ment, are all found here. 

Literature on application. Address Medical Director, "Mudlavia," 
Kramer, Ind. Our railway station is Attica, Indiana, at junction of 
C. & E. I. R. R. (Brazil Division) and Wabash R. R. 

Physicians are invited to spend a few days, on their way to or 
from St. Louis, inspecting our institution as our guests. 



X-Ray Special 

Call at our booth, No. 29, 
and let us demonstrate to 
you our very latest X-RAY 
SPECIAL, combined with 
a resonator for all classes 
of high-frequency work. 
With this machine some of 
the finest detailed and 
shortest exposed pictures 
have been taken, and prac- 
tically a new era in X-Ray 
work established. 

It can be furnished with- 
out High-Frequency if X- 
Ray work only is desired. 

Do not leave the conven- 
tion until you have seen 
this magnificently equipped 
and efficient machine. 

SCHEIDEL-WESTERN X-RAY COIL CO. 

Largest exclusive manu- 
facturers of X-Ray appa- 
ratus in the world. Booth 
29. Factory and General 
Offices, Chicago. 



Horlick s 
Malted Milk 

Th^ Original and Only Genuine 

A food that bas demonstrated under 
exacting clinical tests for over a quarter 
of a century, its value in the dietary 
of infants, nursing mothers, surgical 
cases. Consumptives, Typhoid Fever 
patients and other invalids. The 
standard Malted Milk, representing the 
highest achievement in every detail 
peculiar to its manufacture. The result 
of modifying pure milk -^vith the 
soluble extract of malted grain in 
which the enzymes of the malt are 
perfectly developed under our own 
supervision. So easily assimilated as 
to greatly extend the usefulness of a 
milk diet in private or hospital practice. 

That your patients may obtain the 
best as well as the original and only 
genuine, always specify "Horlick s. " 

Samples sent, free and prepaid, to 
the profession, upon request. 

HORLICK- S MALTED MILK CO. 

Racine, Wis., U. S. A. 
Slough, Bucks., Eng. Montreal, Can. 



We have set a new Quality Standard for 
Aseptic Surgical Dressings 

Absorbent Cotton Adhesive Plaster 

We can convince you if you will write for a sample 

BAUER ^ BLACK, Chicago — New York 



A most elegant and agreeable form of administering iodine is presented in 

G^ Iv"^ O EJ I« 13 1 JV JB? 

(Wampole) 

Therapeutically, it is very valuable as a lymphagogic, expectorant and antiluetic agent. 
Whenever the use of an iodide is indicated, GLYCERODINE will produce excellent results, 
and being of agreeable taste, it is easy to administer. As an alimentary astringent, carmin- 
ative and antiseptic, we recommend 

Bismuth Hydrate Compound (Wampole) 

This preparation exerts a sedative and mildly astringent action upon the gastro-intestinal 
mucous membranes. Being neutral in reaction, it has no influence upon pepsin, and the 
intestinal digestive juices. The Bismuth in this product is held in minute sub-division so 
that it forms a uniform coating over all gastro-intestinal surfaces with which it comes in 
contact. T! • 1 i> 

For further description of these preparations, see "New and Nonoflicial Hemcdies. 

Prepared solely by HENRY K. WAMPOLE & CO., Incorporated 
Manufacturing Pharmacists Philadelphia, Pa. 



WE take this opportunity to present our compliments to tKe 
members of the A. M. A., and express our appreciation for 
the excellent co-operation we have been given by the mem- 
bers of the Association during the past year — the most successful year 
in the history of our Company, -which, during the past twenty years, 
has grown to be the largest electrical concern in the country cater- 
ing exclusively to the needs of the physician, surgeon and hospital. 

A cordial invitation is extended to the visiting members to make the Victor exhibit 
(spaces 21 and 40) their headquarters while at the meeting. 

When in Chicago, come and see us. The time will be well spent. 

VICTOR ELECTRIC CO., 55 to 61 Market Street, Chicago 

Branches and agencies in all principal cities 



St. Paul 
Minneapolis 



104 East 23d St.. NEW YORK 



Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Instruments 

X-Ray, High Frequency Apparatus 
and General Electrical Equipment 
High-grade repairing in all branches 



London 
Paris 



^ 




^ WANTS ^ 

YDURHEAD 

700 PINEST. 

( TRADEMARK ) 
REGISTERED DEC 5.1905 U.S.PAT. OFFICE 


Straw Hats 

$2 to $5 

Umbrellas Traveling Rags 

700 Pine Street 









Plates that with the shortest 
exposure cover the greatest 
range and depth of detail 
under the trying conditions 
of Spring light are essential 
now. Extra Fast (blue label) 

HAMMER'S PLATES 

Special Extra Fast 
(red label) do this every time 

HAMMER DRY PLATE COMPANY 

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI 



Hammer's little book, ' A Short Talk on 
Negative-Making," mailed free 




604 Olive St. 



RELIABLE OPTICAL SERVICE 

Sole Agents Globe Ear Phone 
ERKER BROS. OPTICAL CO. 51 1 N. Grand Ave. 

St. Louis 



Try Borden s 


Malted Milk 


as a Satisfying and Sustaining 
Food for 


Gastro-Intestinal 


€^ Disorders <* 


Free from Starch and 
Cane Sugar 


Malted Milk Department 

Borden's Condensed Milk Co. 
New York 


Samples to physicians upon request 



Ammratt 

7th and Market Streets 

is absolutely 
fire - proof 



275 Rooms 
275 Baths 

C. C. Butler. Manager 



Ethical Physicians 

(and no others) 

Can take an 

"Immunity Bath" 

under our 

Physicians' 

Liability 

Insurance 

We defend to court of last 
resort and PAY JUDG- 
MENTS up to $15,000. Cost 
only $15.00 yearly. 

The Fidelity and Casualty 
Company of New York 

Assets $9,500,000.00 

R. A. HOFFMANN, Gen. Agent 
Rialto Bldg., St. Louis 




Members of the 
American Medical Association 
and their guests are invited to view 
our remarkable collection of 

ORIENTAL RUGS 

suitable for the homes and offices 
of physicians. We send rugs on ap- 
proval to physicians anywhere in 
the country. Our rugs are sold at 
wholesale price. 

A. H. ASADORIAN & CO. 

Native Importers 
386 N. Euclid Ave., ST. LOUIS 

Take"McPherson"car west on Olive to Euclid 



COMPLIMENTS OF 

BOYD'S 

OLIVE AND SIXTH STS. 



IMPORTERS, 

RETAILERS 

AND 

MANUFACTURERS 

OF 



MEN'S 
WEAR 



HOW SHOULD THE 

DOCTORo 

DRESS? 



ASK 



DRIEMEYER 



TAILORo 



203 North Seventh Street 
Corner Pine 
Second Floor 

ST. LOUIS 




311 Nv BROADWAY 



We show many 

approved 

models of 

Arch Support Shoes 

as well as correct 

styles for 

Men, Women and 

Children 



Prescription for Tired Doctors 

Trip to Hot Springs^ Ark. 



^ 



All the pleasures of a vacation while 
taking a course of baths in the radio- 
active waters. Freedom of park drives, 
golf links and woodland walks. 



Directio7is: Take this trip any time via the 

Iron Mountain Route 

For Hot Springs Booklet address 

B. H. PAYNE 

General Passenger Agent, St. Louis 



MISSOURI 

PACIFIC 

IRON 

MOUNTAIN 



WM. H. STEELE, President J. F. CONRAD, Vice-President 

FRED DEIBEL, Vice-President E. M. WOOLGER, Vice-President 

H. W. KROEGER, Cashier 

WM. E. HESS, Assistant Cashier 

Jefferson Bank 

Cor. Franklin and Jefferson Aves. 

St. Louis, Mo. 

W^e solicit your account and extend to you every 

courtesy. Foreign Exchange bought and 

sold. Letters of Credit issued, 

payable in all of Europe. 

Depository for American Medical Association 

Highest rates of interest allowed on time deposits 



Remington 

The name that stamps the 
character of your writing 
machine as certainly as 
your letter head signifies the 
character of your business. 

The name of the FIRST 
practical Typewriter — the 
name which to-day dis- 
tinguishes the BEST Typewriter — the name which 
means Typewriter. See the new models 10 and 11. 

Remington Typewriter Company 

(Incorporated) 
New York and Everywhere 

The Official Typewriter at the American Medical Association 
Convention, St. Louis, 1910 




The Sanitary Drinking Cups used during this 
Convention were made by the 

Liquid Package and Machine Go. 

Visitors will be cordially received at the 

Factory and Laboratory 

23 rd and Locust Streets, St. Louis, Mo. 



HOTEL GRANVILLE 

N. J. KRAFT, PROPRIETOR 

GRAND AND FRANKLIN AVENUES 

Rooms with or without bath American or European Plan 

From Union Station, 18th Street Car to I8th and Washington, 
transfer to Page Car, west to Grand and Franklin 



Physician's Ready 
Reference Account Book 

Arranged by Gideon C. Segur, M. D. 

This book cares for your 
accounts with absolute accuracy 
and scarcely any clerical labor. 
Indeed, it makes your book- 
keeping almost automatic. 

300-page book, $4.00 
500-page book, 6.50 

See our Physician's Card Ledger, also. 

BUXTON & SKINNER 
Stationery Company 

The Fourth St. Store 306-8 N. 4th 



"Stick to Stickney's" 

StiGkney's Perfeccion 

"Mild or Strong, 

But Never Wrong" 




209N.4UI5T. ST.IOII 



Security Cigar 

"In it every minute" 



I ^ . lo 'II 




St. Louis: Its History ^ Ideals 



American Medical Association 
1910 



